Albania deploys army to guard airport after second money heist

China Everbright

10/04/2019 20:26

By Benet Koleka
    TIRANA, April 10 (Reuters) - The Albanian government ordered
troops to guard the country's international airport and
criticized the Chinese company that runs the facility on
Wednesday, a day after armed robbers seized bags of cash that
were about to be loaded onto a plane.
    The government would "no longer allow the security of
citizens and the country's image to suffer", Defence Minister
Olta Xhacka said of Tuesday's robbery, which was the second time
in three years the Tirana airport has been targeted in a heist. 
    She joined Interior Minister Sander Lleshaj in accusing 
Tirana International Airport (TIA), run by financial firm China
Everbright Limited (CEL)  0165.HK , of "persistent
irresponsibility". 
    "I have ordered members of the military police and the
troops of the special army unit to be stationed along the
security fence of the 'Mother Teresa' airport," Xhacka said.
    CEL rejected Lleshaj's allegations of negligence, including
that it had failed to notify the police of the break-in. The
company said it had stepped up security measures since a similar
robbery at the airport in June 2016.
    "The airport does not belong to the Chinese, it belongs to
all Albanians. It is a part of Albania's territory and is
protected by law by the State Police, as is every inch of this
country," CEL said in a statement.
    National police director Ardi Veliu announced police were
taking over more duties at the airport.
    In Tuesday's heist, a group of at least four robbers smashed
through a wire and iron airport gate in a van, images showed.
They drove away with what the local media has said was a haul of
seven bags containing 10 million euros ($11.27 million)
belonging to four banks. The cash was about to be loaded into an
Austrian Airlines plane to be flown to Vienna.
    Lufthansa's Austrian Airlines, a unit of Deutsche Lufthansa,
  LHAG.DE , did not say how much money was stolen, but said it
was halting its transport of valuable freight from Tirana.
    "As an immediate measure, from now on no value freight will
be transported on this route," the airline said.
    Raiffeisen Bank International  RBIV.VI  said it was
affected, but also did not provide any details about the amount.
    Police said one of the robbers was killed on Tuesday in an
exchange of gunfire while the gang was changing cars and police
were in pursuit. His accomplices fled and are at large. No one
else was hurt.
    The dead man, identified as Admir Murataj, was the
mastermind of at least four robberies of bank money transports
since 2015 and was the leader of Tuesday's heist, officials
said.
    Police said he was a convict who escaped from jail in Greece
in 2013 and kept staging armed bank robberies there before
starting to hit banks in Albania. 
           
($1 = 0.8876 euros)

 (Additional reporting by Kirsti Knolle
Editing by Frances Kerry)
 ((benet.koleka@thomsonreuters.com; +355 44 50 48 78 ; Reuters
Messaging: Benet.Koleka.reuters.com@reuters.net))