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Southeast Europe
August 24, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 15
out to be the country’s biggest fiscal tightening this century.
A German government spokesman on August 20 said it was up to Turkey to decide whether it wants to seek economic help from the IMF.
On August 19, Qatar and Turkey’s central banks signed a currency swap agreement to provide liquidity and support for financial stability, days after Turkey’s Gulf ally pledged $15bn in support.
Albanian police seize nearly €1mn gained by former drug trafficker
bne IntelliNews
Albanian police have seized nearly €1mn from a bank account belonging to a family of a drug a trafficker, who were killed last year in Greece, local media reported on August 22.
The seizure was part of the operation dubbed “Force of Law” conducted in period November 2017-August 2018.
Albania was previously known as a major marijuana producer, until the launch of
a government crackdown in 2014, which significantly reduced cannabis plantations.
At its peak, the cultivation of cannabis accounted for about half of Albania’s GDP. Albanian drug trafficking groups also smuggle heroin, cocaine and other drugs to EU countries.
The agreement will establish a two-way currency exchange line, the Qatar Central Bank said in a statement posted on its website.`
Qatar’s Emir this month approved economic pro- jects, investments and deposits for Turkey. That gave a boost to the battered TRY.
The currency stood at 6.0972 against the dollar as of around 14:20 local time on August 21. That marked a weakening of 0.40%.
Albania police seized nearly €1mn from killed marijuana trafficker's banks.
As part of the operation, the state police seized ALL111.4mn (€889,000) suspected to be gained during criminal activities of the citizen R.S. related to drug trafficking in Greece, Albanian Daily News reported, citing the police as saying.
Investigation will continue for finding movable and immovable property as well as other bank accounts.
According to Albanian Daily News, the money be- longed to Roland Shembitrasi, 39, who was killed in October 2017 in Athens after a drug trafficking operation.
After his death, the seized property was trans- ferred to his family.