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4 Albanians have been arrested by Italian police, accused of being involved in drug trafficking. The Albanian organization based in Bologna, Italy, which imported cocaine from European ports, has been dismantled by police.
Among the accused was a 90-year-old man who acted as a courier, 5 were arrested, while a total of 19 people were accused. The traffic was directed through SKY ECC communications, with coded messages, and the leaders of the group were two Albanians, an uncle and nephew, who led one from Barcelona in Spain and the other from Bologna in Italy.
The gang trafficked about half a ton of cocaine and hashish, with a market value of at least 5 million euros. The money earned was reinvested in Albania.
Details of the operation and the dismantling of SKY ECC
The operation was carried out by Italian police and European partners. Five people, 4 of Albanian nationality and one of Tunisian nationality, all aged between 30 and 50, were arrested on March 19.
The Bologna Anti-Mafia Directorate also cooperated in the investigation. In total, at least 19 people are under investigation, including the elderly Italian courier. Most of the accused are Albanians, who also ran the organization.
According to the police, the five arrested are suspected of having imported drugs from the Netherlands. In the period April-November 2020 alone, the group is suspected of having brought 41.5 kilograms of cocaine, 76.5 kilograms of marijuana and 280 kilograms of hashish into Italy. The economic value of these drug shipments, according to police estimates, can be calculated at 5 million euros.
On Thursday, the five people were identified in various cities between Spain and Italy and arrested thanks to the Mobile Squads of Rimini, Treviso and Verona and Udyco of Madrid.
Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Director of Police Natalia Riga said the investigation was long and complex. The biggest difficulty was decrypting encrypted communications between members of the criminal group, who used 'cryptophones' provided by the Sky Ecc communications network.
The changes may have to do with microphones or GPS sensors inside phones that are removed and which actually protect the user from possible eavesdropping.
The investigative activity refers to a period of time between April and November 2020. At that time, the police did not have the means to decrypt the conversations of the members of the criminal group. The turning point came in 2021, when police forces in Belgium, the Netherlands and France managed to 'hack' the system. The Bologna Public Prosecutor's Office was then able to obtain the decryption key and began to 'translate' the messages of the users under investigation.
Another difficulty was connecting the pieces of the puzzle. In fact, the only elements available to investigators were the messages, videos and photos – and the information within them – distributed among the members of the criminal group. For this reason, the investigative activity was long and laborious.
In fact, investigators reconstructed the identities of the group members thanks to information they shared with each other, such as where they lived or the car they drove. Similarly, the same pattern was followed for drug trafficking: perhaps one subject would send a photo of a cocaine shipment, while another would talk about a specific shipment that could match the photo shared by another group member.
Arrests and searches
The narcotics – mainly cocaine – were imported to Bologna by couriers who hid the drugs inside trucks and were sold there at retail. Most of the money ended up in Albania, where it was reinvested to buy more drugs in bulk. The Flying Squads of Bologna, Rimini, Treviso, Verona and the Spanish police arrested 5 members of the criminal group, all five of whom were taken into custody. A total of 19 people are under investigation, while other checks were also carried out in the cities of Modena, Ferrara and Frosinone, where police seized 15,000 euros in cash, around 9 mm cartridges, two cars and material for packaging the drugs.
The leader of the criminal group was identified as a man in his forties, of Albanian origin, who during the investigation was a resident of the province of Bologna. He decided everything: he determined the imports and the quality of the drugs, he chose the couriers and who would transport the money to Albania, where it was then reinvested, Italian media reported.
During the investigation, however, he left Italy, moving to the province of Barcelona, where he was arrested yesterday. The gang's command then passed into the hands of his nephew, also of Albanian origin, residing in the province of Bologna, who 'inherited' the gang's command from his uncle.
Among the suspects is a very old man, almost ninety years old, Italian and without a criminal record, also residing in the province of Bologna. He was used as a 'suspicious subject' for the transport of drugs. The old man is not among those arrested, but is among those under investigation. Two people ended up in prison in Bologna: the nephew of the head of the criminal group and the man of Tunisian nationality, also residing in the province of Bologna.
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