Albania deploys army to guard capital’s Chinese-operated international airport after Hollywood-style heist on runway
- Armed men broke onto the runway of the Albanian capital’s airport and stole millions of euros destined for a bank in Vienna on an Austrian Airlines flight
- Government officials and Hong Kong-based China Everbright Limited, which runs the airport, spar over who was responsible for security
Albania’s government has ordered troops to guard the country’s international airport and criticised the Chinese company that runs the facility, 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 Mother Teresa Tirana International Airport has been targeted in a heist.
She joined Interior Minister Sander Lleshaj in accusing the airport, run by Hong Kong-based China Everbright Limited (CEL), 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.
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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.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is on a visit to Monaco, tweeted that “the Albanian state will accept no justification from the company and it will take over the outside perimeter control and the internal security”.
The airport does not belong to the Chinese. It belongs to all Albanians, it is part of Albania’s territory and by law it is protected by the state police
That security was said to involve military police and a special air forces battalion, Xhacka said.
They drove away with what the local media has said was a haul of seven bags containing €10 million (US$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, 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 said it was affected, but also did not provide any details about the amount.
Police said one of the robbers was killed 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.
On Wednesday, criticism grew over security measures at the airport, notably since the robbery coincided with a visit by Matthew Palmer, a high-ranking US official.
Investigators said the robbers were apparently very well informed and may have had accomplices at the airport.
They questioned dozens of staff members, notably security services employees.
The opposition to socialist Prime Minister Rama said the government had displayed “baffling incompetence”.
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“They are very competent to crack down on opposition protesters with tear gas and batons of hundreds of policemen, but not to secure the country’s only airport,” said Gazmend Bardhi, a top official of the Democratic Party.
“Security measures within the airport have completely failed,” Spiro Brumbulli of the association of Albanian banks said.
“It is a very serious affair and unfortunately not the first one,” said Infrastructures Minister Belinda Balluku.
She regretted that the Chinese company had rebuffed government requests for stepped-up investment in security.
The airport is “very vulnerable” to such attacks, Balluku said.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press
