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Albanian Dritan Rexhepi, one of the most powerful "heads" of drug trafficking in Ecuador, was arrested today in Istanbul.
He started his drug activity in 2014, transporting drugs from Latin America to Europe.
The "King of Cocaine", as Albanian drug lord Dritan Rexhepi is known, has recently been operating from a prison in Ecuador.
A recent report published by the British media The Economist, assures that Rexhepi "is the successful model of the Balkan criminal emissary of cocaine in Latin America", as he is the leader of a sophisticated structure for drug trafficking from South America to Europe , has even managed to corrupt the authorities since 2014 when he was arrested.
Rexhepi is serving a 13-year prison sentence for drug trafficking. He was convicted on April 10, 2015, although authorities arrested him in 2014 in an operation called Balkanes.
Rexhepi was arrested in Quito, in that operation that resulted in the seizure of 278 kilograms of cocaine. The Albanian entered Ecuador with two false identities and changed his image, so the country's authorities had to solve the fingerprint identification and found out that it was Rexhepi, who at that time was wanted by Europol.
Currently, there are two requests for extradition against Rexhep, one from Albania and the other from Italy, but only one of them will come into effect with the end of the sentence in Ecuador. The Albanian is also wanted in Belgium and has recently been accused of ordering and organizing, from his cell, the kidnapping of 49-year-old Jan Prenga in Albania in February 2020. The victim was never found and is presumed dead.
Italian authorities also accuse Rexhepi of having ordered at least two other murders while in prison, in Ecuador and Albania. The Albanian has denied his involvement in these crimes.
He was incarcerated in a Guayaquil prison, but since 2017 he has been in Latacunga prison, where one of the most recent massacres took place that ended with the killing of 16 people, including Leandro "el boss" Norero, another drug trafficker.
According to Balkan Insight, Rexhepi is the head of a transnational criminal federation of Albanian drug traffickers that has poured cocaine worth hundreds of millions of euros from South America to Europe.
Rexhepi's operations, since 2014 under Rafael Correa's government, would continue from prison because he had access to a cellphone, although authorities have denied he has cellphone equipment in his cell.
However, hundreds of prohibited items enter Ecuador's prisons, from cell phones, money, even ammunition and high-caliber weapons.
In 2020, an operation in Europe and the Middle East managed to capture 20 suspects linked to the Albanian cartel "Kompania Bello", led by Dritan Rexhepi.
According to Europol, the Bello Company controlled the entire drug importation chain.
Balkan Insight had access to several Italian court documents that identified Rexhepi, now 41, as the "undisputed kingpin" of Kompania Bello, with access to "endless quantities of cocaine".
The Bello Company is a cartel composed of 14 Albanian criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking and, according to authorities, has operated since 2014 in Ecuador, the Netherlands, Belgium, Albania and Italy, as published in November 2021 by The Wall Street Journal. ISJ).
The objective of this mafia, according to Italian prosecutors, "was the extension of control over the international drug traffic and the exponential increase in the profits of the members of the federation".
The cartel had benefited from its privileged relationship with cocaine producers in South America. According to several reports from the United Nations and the United States Department of Defense, Colombia and Peru, both bordering Ecuador, are known to be the largest producers of cocaine in the region.
This relationship allowed members of Kompania Bello to export large quantities of drugs from South America to Dutch and Belgian ports.
According to ÚSJ, Rexhepi had received the cocaine from Colombia through a fellow prisoner. The Albanian used a hidden cell phone and organized shipments of millions of dollars in containers that arrived at various ports in the Netherlands. With the profits from the traffic, he ordered attacks against his opponents.
In addition to his criminal history, Rexhepi is also known for his escapes. He has even escaped from prison more times than Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo Guzmán.
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