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Albanian officials reportedly attended this meeting to facilitate obtaining building permits.
"La Libre" has revealed details from the start of the trial in Belgium for a criminal organization of 40 people, many of them Albanians, accused of international cocaine trafficking.
As revealed by the file, according to foreign media, the operation dates back to September 30, 2020 when, in a separate case, garage boxes were searched in Evere. A van, chemicals related to the preparation of cocaine, cannabis oil and resin, batteries and fake police uniforms were found there.
Thanks to the phones used for the rental, investigators traced four people, including a prisoner in Barcelona in connection with a case of 441 kg of cocaine. They realize that this person continues to drive traffic from his cell.
Another is identified, who travels a lot to Dubai, Greece or Mexico. He owns companies in Cyprus and Dubai and has invested in coal trading. He owns a legal cannabis plantation in Greece, subsidized by the government.
During the police surveillance, the investigators discovered frequent comings and goings in the ports of Ghent and Antwerp. These people meet in supermarket parking lots. They exchange bags. A warehouse in Zutendaal (Limburg), where large barrels are delivered, is intriguing.
The investigation has been enriched thanks to the decoding of the "Sky ECC" cryptophones. On the phone of Indri K., one of the main defendants, you can see photos of cocaine bars, weapons, ecstasy, banknotes as well as indications of payments to be made in Latin America and evidence of transfers from Brazil and Bolivia to France, Belgium and England .
The investigation extends to Europe and mainly to Spain. The criminal organization has global ramifications. It is active in arms, car and drug trafficking, as well as prostitution. It is about transfers of football players for significant amounts. The managers invest their income in real estate in Germany, Albania, Italy and Spain, mainly in Mallorca.
The defendants met in Antilles to discuss the construction of a tower in Tirana.
It would also be this Balearic island that would be the epicenter of the organization and the chosen land of its leader Bashkim O. This Kosovar, who, like Artur S., would settle in Miami, was targeted in Spain by investigations since year 2018.
Artur S. as well as one of the defendants who is currently being tried in Brussels, Arben I., are said to have participated in meetings in Mallorca as well as in Italy, during which real estate investments financed by drug money were discussed .
Investigators believe that there was also a meeting in Aruba (Netherlands Antilles) during which the investment in a tower in Tirana (Albania) was discussed. Participants traveled there by private jet. Albanian officials reportedly attended this meeting to facilitate obtaining building permits. This was denied on Monday by Arben I., who nevertheless admits that he has, like his cousin Artur S., very high connections in Tirana. In this context, there is also talk of handing over a watch worth 400,000 euros.
The organization transported the cocaine from South America to Belgium through different channels: by fishing boats that leave the cocaine at sea where it is taken by yachts, by commercial flights, by private planes or even in containers. Not always successful: on June 3, 2021, customs seized 6,689 kg of cocaine in a container of bananas from Ecuador to Antwerp.
On September 18, 2021, the organization failed to recover a container shipment of cocaine. Despite this, they went to the truck driver, who they forced, at gunpoint, to return to his business in Berlaar. They then found the cocaine in the container.
Laboratories have also been discovered in Zutendaal, Belgium and the Netherlands. When it was clean, cocaine was added. In other cases, it was extracted from products where it had been hidden (coal or fruit pulp) before the pulp thus extracted was shaped and turned into loaves which would be stamped with acronyms such as Volvo, Rolex, Puma or… the Israeli flag . The cocaine was then exported in cars equipped with hiding places. The trial is expected to last a month.
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