Albanian land seller tied to Kushner resort is suspected of drug trafficking
A land seller for Jared Kushner’s Albanian resort is under drug trafficking scrutiny, raising fresh questions about how the deal was vetted.
Court records dated June 10, 2026, show Albanian prosecutors alleging sufficient evidence that Artur Shehu was involved in drug trafficking and sufficient data that he falsified financial documents tied to other real estate and construction projects. Shehu, a Miami resident with dual U.S. and Albanian nationality, sold land that was earmarked for a Kushner-backed luxury development on Albania’s Adriatic coast.
A June 10 order imposed a preventative seizure on a bank account holding more than 110 million euros, or about $127 million, and identified the money as coming from the sale of land between Shehu and Albanian Land Development sh.a. The order did not accuse the company of wrongdoing, but a separate court filing identified Shehu as suspected of money laundering, participation in an organized crime group, and narcotics trafficking, and investigators believe he laundered proceeds from drug trafficking.
The development, linked to investors including Jared Kushner through Albania Land Development LLC and Affinity Partners, is a roughly $4 billion scheme that could include about 10,000 hotel rooms. It is planned for the protected Vjosa-Narta and Pishë-Poro-Nartë coastal wetland area near Zvërnec and Vlorë, home to flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites. Demonstrators in Tirana and Vlora have spent more than a month chanting, “Albania is not for sale,” and the campaign is called the flamingo revolution.
SPAK, the Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organized Crime, sought the arrests of 20 people in an international drug trafficking ring on June 13 and froze the bank accounts of Albania Land Development on June 2 amid a property-fraud investigation. SPAK has also examined changes in protected status and land ownership in 2024 that opened the door to tourism development.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has defended the project as a route to Albania’s “Champions League” of global tourism and said the environmental study is incomplete and the final proposal has not yet been submitted. Kushner and Affinity Partners have not immediately responded to requests for comment.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
