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Home - U.S. Embassy Tirana, Albania EmbassyU.S. Citizen ServicesVisas to the U.S.U.S. Policy & IssuesResourcesSHQIP Embassy Highlights U.S. and Albanian Law Enforcement Agencies Collaborate to Capture Albanian Fugitive (April 15, 2008) Criminal Investigators from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. State Department returned Albanian fugitive and former Albanian State Police Officer Lorenc Balliu to Tirana. Such action could not have been made possible without the assistance of INTERPOL Tirana. In 2003 an Albanian Court convicted former police officer Balliu of murder. The court established that on January 3, 2003 Balliu took part in the physical beating of an individual during a police interrogation. The victim subsequently died because of the injuries sustained. Balliu will serve a 16-year imprisonment sentence. U.S. Embassy Statement on the Role of ATF (April 11, 2008) The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is the primary U.S. Federal agency for the investigation of explosives incidents and the enforcement of explosives laws and explosives industry regulations. Since 1978, ATF has had a national and international response capability to investigate significant explosions and fires. This capability, the National Response Team (NRT) and International Response Team (IRT), consists of teams that respond anywhere in the U.S., and, through the Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, respond to assist foreign governments with investigations overseas. The teams are each composed of veteran special agents, forensic chemists, bomb technicians, and fire protection and electrical engineers with explosion and fire origin and cause expertise. The teams work alongside local investigators in reconstructing the scene, identifying the origin and cause of the explosion or fire, conducting interviews, and sifting through debris to obtain evidence related to the explosion or fire. ...