The ship Moliva, carrying suspected hazardous waste, docked at Porto Romano in Durres. Photo: Adnan Beci/LSA.
Police in the Albanian port city of Durres said on Wednesday that they have arrested 20 people accused by the prosecution of playing a role in shipping hazardous waste produced by an Albanian steel mill to Thailand.
According to the Durres police, an operation was still ongoing on Wednesday for the arrests of 13 other suspects.
The arrests came more than a year after the Durres prosecution ordered the seizure of cargo from the ship Moliva, which included 102 containers of suspected dangerous industrial waste.
The Moliva left Durres for Thailand in July 2024 but was denied entry after a US-based environmental NGO, Basel Action Network, raised the alarm.
In October 2024, Durres prosecution started investigating the 102 containers that had been returned to Durres port.
The prosecution confirmed in December 2025 that the containers carried over 2,800 tons of hazardous waste originating from furnaces owned by Kurum International, a Turkish company that operates in the former communist-era Metallurgical Combine in Elbasan in Albania. Kurum operates electric arc furnaces producing steel for the construction industry in Elbasan.
According to an expert analysis that was carried out in Italy, the waste is electric arc furnace dust, a toxic byproduct of the steel-making process that is classified as hazardous under Albanian legislation.
According to the Durres Prosecutor’s Office, the investigation into the smuggling of hazardous waste to Thailand revealed violations of environmental legislation by the companies Kurum International and Sokolaj, the containers exporting company, as well as by the National Environment Agency, Durres Customs and an concession company of the eastern terminal at the port of Durres.
Prosecutors claim both companies were aware that the waste was hazardous. The companies were denied an export permit by the Environment Ministry so tried to conceal what the cargo was by falsifying documents.
“The Environment Ministry’s failure to grant authorisation to export this type of waste led the Sokolaj and Kurum companies to export the waste in violation of the law, without the appropriate authorisation and by concealing the true nature of the waste in the accompanying documentation,” said the Durres court in its decision ordering the 33 arrests.
When the allegations initially emerged in August 2024, Kurum International denied wrongdoing, saying the claims were “media speculation”.
