00:00And the situation kind of escalated further when Albania's independent anti-corruption agency, it's called SPAC,
00:07they launched this investigation into fraudulent land titles and murky privatization deals associated with the site that was then purchased
00:16and is continuing to be purchased in anticipation of this deal.
00:21And some of the land was being bought up by a guy called Arta Shehu, who's a dual US Albanian
00:28citizen who's previously been linked to drug trafficking and money laundering.
00:33So there's this sort of shady association with it as well.
00:36But then the whole thing exploded when at the end of May, on the 30th of May, a small group
00:40of local landowners and environmentalists marched to the site to kind of try and make their views heard.
00:48And they were met really aggressively by these private security guards who had been hired to kind of keep the
00:55peace and keep order.
00:56But this video went viral online with this footage that was captured of guards forcibly dragging one of the local
01:04landowners across rocky ground while he was handcuffed, all while the police just stood by.
01:10So, again, the state being kind of part of the whole business.
01:15And I think that that has been part of the thing that then exploded online and people got very outraged
01:21about that.
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