Adrian Ogiçi, 40, has been arrested in Spain after being declared wanted following a 20-year prison sentence for committing the criminal offenses of "Kidnapping" and "Drug Trafficking," carried out in collaboration.
According to investigations, in June 2015, Adrian Ogiçi, in collaboration with Vitor Islami and other unidentified individuals, kidnapped citizen Ridvan Lamaj on the Saranda promenade.
On the evening of June 17, 2015, Ridvan Lamaj was drinking coffee on the promenade of the city of Saranda when two friends, with whom he had argued about drug-related issues, invited him to get into a "BMW X5."
From that moment, the family of the 37-year-old Lamaj, father of two children, has known nothing about him. On July 24, 2017, the Court of Appeal for Serious Crimes upheld the decision of the First Instance Court, which found the defendants Adrian Ogiçi and Vitor Islami guilty of the incident. Defendant Ogiçi was sentenced in absentia to 20 years of imprisonment, while defendant Islami was sentenced to 19 years.
Adrian Ogiçi, Vitor Islami, and Ridvan Lamaj had prior acquaintance and social relations among them. According to the court, defendants Ogiçi and Islami, as well as the victim Ridvan Lamaj and citizen A. K., were involved in cannabis trafficking to Greece.
This trafficking was carried out by transporting the narcotic substance on foot, outside border crossing points, where defendant Adrian Ogiçi played the role of financier and supplier of the narcotic substance. Meanwhile, defendant Vitor Islami, together with citizens Ridvan Lamaj and A. K., transported it on foot, carrying it themselves, outside border crossing points into Greek territory. Several days before June 17, 2015, it appears that he, along with defendant Islami and A. K., on Ogiçi's orders, transported a quantity of drugs across the border. During the journey, after entering Greek territory, the victim Ridvan Lamaj did not continue the route to the destination but turned back to Albania.
After the victim Ridvan Lamaj returned, defendant Vitor Islami and citizen A. K. continued the journey to deliver the narcotic substance to its destination. During the journey, at night, around 9:00-9:30 PM, they were approached by two masked individuals who attempted to rob them of the narcotic substance.
They were unsuccessful, and after this attack, defendant Vitor Islami and citizen A. K. returned with the narcotic substance, which they handed over in Konispol to defendant Adrian Ogiçi, who was in his "BMW" car with license plate 515 IY. The narcotic substance was not seized or confiscated by Albanian authorities.
After meeting with defendant Adrian Ogiçi, defendant Vitor Islami and citizen A. K. informed him that the victim Ridvan Lamaj had turned back midway, as well as the fact that after the victim Ridvan Lamaj left, defendant Vitor Islami and citizen A. K. were approached by two masked individuals who attempted to rob them of the narcotic substance but failed to do so.
Regarding this incident that occurred in Greek territory, defendants Adrian Ogiçi and Vitor Islami accused the victim Ridvan Lamaj, who, according to the defendants, had ordered masked individuals to rob them of the narcotic substance. In relation to this fact, they also argued with each other, with the victim denying that he had sent masked individuals to rob them of the narcotic substance.
On June 17, 2015, around 5:30 PM, defendant Adrian Ogiçi and citizen A. K. went to the residence of the victim Ridvan Lamaj with the intention of meeting him and there found the victim's wife, citizen M. Lamaj, and asked where the victim was.
She said that her husband had gone out for coffee in Saranda, and at the defendant's request, she spoke with the victim on her sister-in-law's phone. Defendant Adrian Ogiçi also spoke with him, and then they left.
After communicating by phone, the victim Ridvan Lamaj met with defendants Adrian Ogiçi and Vitor Islami on the promenade of the city of Saranda. The victim got into the vehicle of defendant Adrian Ogiçi, a "BMW" X5 with license plate 515 IY, where he sat in the front passenger seat. Defendant Adrian Ogiçi was in the driver's seat, and defendant Vitor Islami sat in the back seat behind the driver's seat.
After these three individuals got into the car, they left the city of Saranda. Defendants Ogiçi and Islami, convinced that the victim Ridvan Lamaj was the person who had organized the individuals who approached them at night in Greek territory to rob them of the narcotic substance, as an act of revenge for this action carried out by the victim, planned and then organized his kidnapping and detention.
At the moment when the victim sat in the front passenger seat, having entered the vehicle thinking that both defendants had called him to discuss the problems they had among themselves and unaware of the plan organized by the defendants for his kidnapping and detention, after the vehicle doors were closed and the vehicle began to move and leave the city of Saranda, defendants Adrian Ogiçi and Vitor Islami immediately blocked the movements of the victim Ridvan Lamaj, forcibly depriving him of his freedom, carrying out his kidnapping, and also taking the mobile phones he had with him, a fact proven by the shouts and curses that random individuals heard at that moment.