Rise Against the Predatory Elites: Banking, Pharmaceutical, and Oil Mafias Are Sucking the Blood of Albania’s Poor
Flamur Buçpapaj
Albania today faces a danger that goes beyond ordinary economic or political crises: a system captured by a predatory minority, feeding on the poverty and insecurity of ordinary citizens. This is not a matter of chance, nor a result of administrative incompetence. It is a sophisticated mechanism of exploitation, in which three silent bloodsuckers—the banks, the pharmaceutical mafia, and the oil oligopoly—work together to extract everything they can from the pockets, health, and time of ordinary people.
Banks are the first gateway of this system. Monthly fees of 10 to 30 euros, taken from citizens without consent or explanation, are not for services—they are institutionalized theft. Calculated for around 1 million citizens, this translates into a monthly profit of 10 to 30 million euros for the banks, just for maintaining accounts and collecting commissions that are unrelated to any real service. This money is not reinvested for public welfare, nor does it go toward development; it stays in the hands of a powerful minority that is unchecked and unaccountable. Citizens pay, banks profit, and the state remains silent.
But this is not the only structured enslavement. The pharmaceutical mafia turns citizens’ health into a commodity for profit. A small number of actors control imports, distribution, and pricing. Pharmacies are dependent; competition is an illusion; citizens have no real choice. Medications often fail to meet European standards, prices are high, and reimbursements are minimal. The sick pay twice: once with money, once with health. Social consequences are severe: chronic illnesses, cancer, infections, and complications are spreading among the poor, while those controlling the market reap extraordinary profits.
The oil oligopoly completes this cycle of exploitation. Fuel is sold with poor quality, often with high sulfur content, damaging engines, air quality, and public health. But what makes this crime even more sophisticated is artificial traffic and strategically placed traffic lights. In the capital, Tirana, traffic lights placed every 300 meters force thousands of cars to stop and start unnecessarily, burning fuel and wasting time. This increases the oligopoly’s profits while citizens lose money, contribute to pollution, and endure chronic stress.
What keeps these three bloodsuckers so powerful? State capture and protection from the political elite. Banks feed public debt and finance specific political interests. The pharmaceutical mafia feeds tenders, reimbursements, and clientelist networks. The oil oligopoly is a major source of revenue and taxes, creating an inseparable link with politicians and administration. Media often remains silent, and institutions meant to protect citizens are weak or captured. Autoriteti i Konkurrencës, theoretically meant to prevent cartels, exists mainly as a public decoration.
Within this system, intelligence services and other security structures are either powerless or selective. Investigations are sporadic, information is not used for meaningful action, and accountability never reaches the powerful. This allows predatory elites to operate freely, exploiting every opportunity to increase profits at the expense of ordinary citizens.
The social consequences are obvious and dramatic: rising inequality, compromised health, environmental pollution, urban stress, reduced productivity, and forced emigration. The poor pay more for banking, medicine, and fuel; the wealthy have alternatives. Health, time, money, and opportunities have become commodities for a predatory minority. The poverty of Albanians has become food for the predatory elite in Tirana.
It is time to rise. To speak out, organize, and demand accountability. We cannot wait for the state to act without our pressure. We cannot remain silent while our lives, health, and dignity are sold for illegal profits. The Albanian people are at risk. If we remain silent, our silence will mean blood for these three silent bloodsuckers.
Only organized civic resistance, transparency monitoring, pressure on institutions, and denouncing cartels can break this chain of exploitation. Poverty must not feed the elite. Health must not be for sale. Our energy and time must not become profit for a predatory few.
