An operation against the Albanian mafia, for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering, was carried out this Tuesday, February 6 in Ecuador and Spain.
Money found in a raid of the ‘Pampa’ operation, against drug trafficking, carried out on February 6, 2024.
Two and a half years of investigations ended in the capture of 30 alleged members of an Albanian criminal organization, which sent cocaine from Ecuador to European countries and laundered money with the purchase of goods in the country.
The Police maintain that the criminal organization “had privileged information on maritime foreign trade documents “
That “made it easier for them to contaminate several weekly containers (of bananas) ,” the police report details.
Structure of the criminal organization
In a press conference, the authorities of Ecuador and Spain explained how the criminal organization operated. It had an Albanian leader: Dritan Gjika , who has been linked to Ecuadorian businessman Rubén Cherres , who in 2023 was murdered after a police investigation was revealed .
Although in this specific investigation no links with Cherres have yet been found , explained Willian Villarroel, national director of Anti-Drug Investigation of the Ecuadorian Police.
This criminal organization also had:
- Two management coordinators , who had corporate ties. They had Argentine and Albanian nationality.
- Two logistics coordinators, who were in charge of transportation, storage, and security.
- Collaborators who served as front men and made payments for the drugs that were taken to Europe and collaborated in security.
Among those detained is not Dritan Gjika , but the authorities say they have “a slight suspicion of where he could be found.”
The drug route
According to the investigations, Dritan Gjika was in charge of the entire process: from placing orders with cocaine-producing laboratories in Colombia to coordinating its sale in Europe.
“Several people helped him coordinate transportation to the border with Ecuador,” specifically Carchi, the police report details.
From there, the drugs continued their route by land to the operations centers, located in the provinces of Cotopaxi, Los Ríos and Guayas, where large quantities of illicit substances were collected.
The drugs left from three ports in Guayas . The narco-criminal organization used “companies that were legal” and contaminated the banana containers, with the blind hook modality .
The drugs traveled by sea to ports in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey and Albania.
This was money laundering
In addition to the drug trafficking investigation, the Ecuadorian Police were still on the trail of a money laundering case.
“These people entered the country with a profile of successful businessmen ,” explained the head of Anti-Narcotics. During the investigation, authorities tracked the movement of money in the national financial system .
Thus, they identified that this organization “has used several natural and legal persons to purchase movable and immovable property,” explains the police report.
The criminal organization had six companies in Ecuador and four in Spain, with extensive commercial activity, which facilitated money laundering.
Payment for these merchandise had the following modality:
- They sold the product from company to company, both in Ecuador and Spain.
- Banknotes were sent to Ecuador, these had a series with a code.
- With that code, in Ecuador a citizen of Chinese origin paid certain amounts of money.
- Then, they took a photograph of the ticket that was sent to Europe, to know that the drug had already been cancelled.
The prosecutor of Ecuador, Diana Salazar, spoke after the operation. ” We fight criminal networks , including the Albanian mafia, attacking their financing from all fronts,” she said on her X account (formerly Twitter).
