
Members of a drug-trafficking criminal group led by Albanians have been convicted after their gang was busted by an Italian anti-mafia operation codenamed 'Double Game'.
The group was led by Albanian brothers Etmond and Klenis Qevani, 47 and 39 years old, residents of Porto Sant'Elpidio and owners of a car dealership.
The two, along with six other members of the organization, requested and received a summary judgment, a procedure that provides for a reduction of one third of the sentence.
Instead, the other four clan members sought a deal.
At the end of the trial, Klenis Qevani was sentenced to 10 years and 8 months, while Etmond "Renato" Qevani was sentenced to 7 years in prison.
NAMES of the convicts:
Kleon Mema, 39 years old, 3 years;
Ferdinando Bongiovanni, 62, 5 years;
Geri Skilja, 29 years old, 3 years and 4 months;
Elidon Shkalla, 28, 5 years;
We recall that the operation began at dawn on June 29, 2023 in the provinces of Fermo, Macerata, Ancona, Pesaro-Urbino and Frosinone, as well as in Albania, Belgium and Spain.
Those arrested were responsible in various capacities for the organization and international trafficking of cocaine and hashish.
The complex investigation, launched by Porto Sant'Elpidio, after the seizure of 20 kg of cocaine, had made it possible to reconstruct the activity and structure of a criminal group with an operational base in the city on the coast of Fermo and with consequences on the Italian and European territory.
However, the first steps of the operation were launched in 2020, when, as part of another investigation carried out by Gico, the figure of a former justice associate from Campania, responsible for a large group of Italian drug dealers, came to light throughout Marche.
From there, investigators reconstructed the drug supply chain, mainly cocaine, which, thanks to a powerful Albanian organization, was regularly imported.
The organizers of the criminal group were in Porto Sant'Elpidio and were the two Qevani brothers: Klenisi, who had sensed the danger, managed to escape but was caught in Belgium, while Etmondi was arrested.
They used the car sales business to transport cocaine and other narcotics.