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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
On February 6, 2024, the State Attorney General's Office formally charged him as a leader of Albanian mafia operations in the country. The charges came after a house was raided in a residential area of Guayaquil...
Dritan Gjika, one of the most wanted persons in Ecuador, has been arrested after months on the run.
Dritan Gjika, also known as "Tony", identified as the head of the Albanian mafia in Ecuador, is one of the defendants in the Pampa case. He is accused of running an organization dedicated to drug trafficking and money laundering through the export of bananas.
Dritan Gjikau was captured in the United Arab Emirates on May 26, 2025, in a joint operation between Ecuador's Interpol and its counterpart in Abu Dhabi, international media wrote.
The Ecuadorian Ministry of Interior announced through its social media accounts the arrest for extradition of the Albanian, known as "Tony", who is one of those prosecuted for organized crime in the Pampa case.
An Argentine banana farmer was Dritan Gjikaa's main partner in Ecuador.
Dritan Gjika is a 47-year-old Albanian who first arrived in Ecuador in 2009 on a temporary visitor visa, according to his immigration records, according to the Ministry of Interior.
He became one of Ecuador's most wanted names and has two Interpol red notices for drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime.
He is accused of leading a criminal organization that operated in Ecuador and Spain, sending large quantities of drugs to Central American and European countries (the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain).
"The criminal structure he led included a level of management, logistics and associates who worked to commit this crime, with the help of legitimate companies that were used to launder funds and conceal commercial and financial activities," the State Department added.
Involved in the Pampa case
The Pampa case, which is being investigated by the Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office, revealed links between the head of the Albanian mafia in Ecuador and long-time banana exporters who were key to transporting cocaine to Europe.
In this case, the Prosecutor's Office published a file containing photographs of the Albanian together with Rubén Cherres, who was killed in March 2023.
In January 2025, a court convicted 14 defendants accused of organized crime for drug trafficking in Ecuador in the Pampa case.
However, Albanian Dritan Gjika, Argentine Mario Sánchez and Ecuadorian Carlos García, suspected leaders of the criminal organization in Ecuador and Spain respectively, have not been brought to trial because they fled.
Following his capture in the United Arab Emirates, the Albanian will be handed over to the relevant authorities to continue the extradition process, the Interior Ministry said.
But who is Dritan Gjika?
Born in 1976 and living in Ecuador since 2013, he is one of the main figures in the case that the police investigated, confidentially, in 2021. The case involves Rubén Cherres, a friend of Danilo Carrera, the brother-in-law of President Lasso. Cherres, who was recently executed, was a business partner of Albanian Dritan Gjika in several companies.
Weapons, thousands of dollars and luxury cars seized/ Operation against the Albanian mafia in Ecuador, Dritan Gjika appears on the scene
Dritan Gjika, according to his country's data, has completed high school. However, in Ecuador, his finances stood out during the pandemic.
Between 2015 and 2018, the Albanian paid no income tax, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In 2019 and 2020, the amount taxed exceeded $500 in each of those years. But in 2021, he paid $15,342 in income tax, while the currency outflow tax that year exceeded $3,700. In 2022, he paid no income tax; but he contributed $1,805 for foreign currency outflow.
What was Gjika's lucrative activity in Ecuador? Gjika incorporated a dozen companies on the same day, June 17, 2021, along with Rubén Cherres. The suspicious thing about the companies created simultaneously is that they have a wide range of social objects, ranging from meat production, through tourism and the promotion of shows, according to documents emerging from the investigation conducted by the office of assemblyman Ricardo Vanegas.
Cherres, in his identity file, appears as an invalid and mentions "oil tanker" as his profession, without further explanation.
According to the Albanian state police, Gjika has no criminal record and has not been arrested by the Albanian police.
However, in September 2021, Italian police deported him from Treviso, Italy, after he failed to gather the necessary documentation to enter the country.
Records show that he traveled between Albania and Dubai.
On January 7, 2023, on the eve of the release of the first audio recordings that shed light on the case, the Albanian Gjika left for Turkey. Since then, there has been no news about him. / Pamphlet /
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