A Romanian general embroiled in a drug trafficking investigation has created a scandal with his alleged close ties to Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama and a convicted FBI chief.
Florian Koldea, a relative of several important politicians in Albania, helped his girlfriend Marina Pandaroff become part of an international drug trafficking network. The cocaine was imported from Mexico, directly from the Sinaloa cartel into Albania in huge quantities and then made its way to Bucharest via a secret route.
Koldea is a former Romanian intelligence general and had a consultancy contract in Albania where he advised senior politicians. Specifically Prime Minister Edi Rama, one of the most controversial politicians in the region.
Florian Koldea has been spotted in restaurants and hotels in Tirana, the capital of Albania, during meetings with politicians, businessmen or other controversial people. In 2020, an article about his presence there appeared in the Albanian press. In March 2020, General Koldea meets in Tirana with the highest politicians of the Socialist Party and the government. It is not known what Koldea did in Tirana, as secret and shady dealings are matters of his profession. It is suspected that Florian Koldea met with Prime Minister Edi Rama, in addition to other Socialist Party leaders.
Large quantities of cocaine are imported into Albania from Latin America, distributed in Kosovo, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then transported to the West.
In September 2022, the Mexican newspaper El Universal published a report by the Mexican anti-drug forces that the Sinaloa cartel (formerly led by the notorious Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán) had entered into an alliance with the Albanian mafia, as a result of which Mexican traffickers began laundering large sums of money into Albania.
The Rama-Coldea story is further spiced up by the investigation of former FBI chief Charles McGonigle. It seems that there was an exchange of gifts and favors between the former head of the FBI and the leaders of several countries in the Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo) and Russia, including Edi Rama.
The Albanian press claims that the former head of the FBI was close to Edi Rama, who tried to arrange for the Albanian politician to meet with representatives of an American company (unnamed) in order to start an anti-corruption project - an operation that was not approved by the FBI leadership.
During the trial, the FBI released a list of the names of individuals it had investigated and from whom it had obtained information about McGonigle's secret meetings. Edi Rama, of course, appears on that list. The FBI had clear information about the gifts and favors that high-ranking Albanian officials provided to the FBI head under investigation. | BGNES
