DREAM / The Prime Minister resigns and wakes up under the Parisian bridge!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

"Protothema" Newspaper PROFILE of the ALBANIAN "king" of cocaine: "The new Escobar", drug baron from Ecuador to Europe!

2025-01-08 10:48:10Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"Protothema" Newspaper PROFILE of the ALBANIAN "king" of
Dritan Rexhepi

" The new Escobar is an Albanian who declared himself a Greek investor ," is how the Greek media outlet Protothema titled the article about the head of the drug cartel, Dritan Rexhepi.

Greek media writes that 44-year-old Dritan Rexhepi is a major drug "baron" from Ecuador in Europe.

According to Protothema, he runs a multinational cartel and in 2011, he presented himself as a Greek investor, but he "was a hitman who escaped from Albania, Italy and Belgium, and is now imprisoned in Turkey."

Excerpt from the Protothema article

The increase in cocaine use in Greece indirectly confirms a process that has been taking place in recent years on a global scale. That is, cocaine is increasingly easily accessible, although not cheaper than in the past.

The current price is around 80-100 euros per gram and remains high, while the corridors followed by drug smuggling have multiplied accordingly, from Latin America to Europe and other markets in the rest of the world.

The need to avoid the patrols of the US Drug Enforcement Agency on the coast of Colombia led the Balkan and European rings to plan different routes, through countries such as Costa Rica, Paraguay and above all Ecuador.

From the quietest and least controlled ports in Latin America, Italian, Russian, Turkish and above all Albanian traffickers secured the opportunity to transport tons of cocaine from Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, etc.

On the ship, for example, they carried bananas or other food products, destined for the Netherlands, Belgium or Spain.

Albanians dominate

Albanian gangs moved more dynamically and efficiently than most of their competitors and managed to take the reins as the new major players in international cocaine trafficking, with expanded alternative options for cargo routes.

And one of the possible descendants of notorious drug lords of the recent past, such as Pablo Escobar or "El Chapo" Guzmán, is reportedly 44-year-old Albanian Dritan Rexhepi.

Although imprisoned (currently in Turkey and awaiting extradition to Albania), Dritan Rexhepi, according to the American newspaper "The Washington Post", appears as the new big powerful multinational drug boss, a cartel that is not unsurpassed in power, circulation and organization of Colombia and Mexico.

In Netflix terms, this could be the new lead in a possible future offshoot of the "Narcos"-type series.

In any case, his life is episodic enough to be used as a canvas for a screenplay. In fact, Dritan Rexhepi began his ascent from Ecuador, presenting himself with one of his false identities, as a Greek businessman, investor, etc.

This happened around 2011, when the Albanian went to Ecuador following a trend that was developing in the Albanian underworld at the time. The Albanians, who were involved in the drug trade and had created a network of partners throughout Europe, had noticed that Ecuador was emerging as a growing power, as a central hub for trafficking cocaine shipments in almost every direction around the globe.

Moreover, the weakness of the local authorities created favorable conditions for people with aspirations like Dritan Rexhepi to settle there. There he could buy real estate, create companies with legal fronts to start his illegal and criminal activities, and so on.

Of course, Rexhepi did not immigrate to Ecuador with a clean criminal record from his previous life. In Albania, as a hitman, he was involved in the execution of a policeman and a civilian in 1999, a double crime for which he was arrested in 2006. However, he immediately escaped from custody and began wandering the Balkans and Italy as a fugitive. Albania and Italy wanted him, but he was arrested in the Netherlands for drug trafficking.

Rexhepi was extradited to Italy, where he was sentenced to 13 years in prison, escaped and was arrested again, this time in Spain, where authorities extradited him to Belgium. After another escape, the elusive Dritan Rexhepi decided to move to Ecuador, a country that does not produce cocaine itself, but obtains it from Colombia and Peru, two countries it borders.

The boss from the cell

Rexhepi soon became alienated, creating a regular criminal organization, with a chain of businesses that trafficked hundreds of tons of cocaine and laundered illegal money.

However, the 41-year-old had bigger visions, which is why he engaged in a systematic effort to infiltrate Ecuador's government services, with rampant bribery and corruption.

He joined forces with local thugs and even used the Albanian vice-consul in Ecuador as his accomplice, although, once again, Dritan Rexhepi found himself behind bars.

In 2014, he was arrested in the country's largest city, Guayaquil, and sentenced to 13 years in prison for drug trafficking. But in reality, the sentence for Rexhepi was something of a change of scenery, as from inside the cell he dedicated himself to further strengthening and expanding his network.

In 2015, he attempted to appeal the first-instance decision against him, citing a miscarriage of justice. He claimed that his real name was Lulzim Muratui and that he was wrongly imprisoned because the police and the court confused him with Dritan Rexhepi.

“There is not the slightest evidence against me, not even a single photograph that links me to the crime of which I am accused,” Rexhepi said at the time. And exaggerating with the same dramatic tone of innocence, he emphatically emphasized that “my only sin – let’s put it this way – is that I am an Albanian citizen. And I came to Ecuador because the country is advertised abroad to attract investment.”

Despite Dritan Rexhepi's own status in Ecuador, his organization continued to spread its tentacles across the globe, establishing transit stations in Greece, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany, Dubai and of course Albania.

In all these countries, in September 2020, European law enforcement agencies arrested 20 of Rexhepi's associates, after months of monitoring their movements. Again, however, he was not at all intimidated.

In August 2021, by pulling the right strings behind the scenes, his sentence was commuted to house arrest with a bracelet, ostensibly for health reasons.

Just a few days later, they removed the bracelet from his leg, as it was thought that Rexhepi would not escape and would fulfill the condition that had been imposed on him, namely to report to the relevant police station every 15 days.

Coincidentally, shortly after Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villasencio harshly criticized the authorities' decision to release Rexpei, he was assassinated.

The 'Bello' Ghost

However, the Albanian boss was arrested again in November 2023, after strong pressure from abroad.

Italian and Albanian anti-drug agencies have requested that Ecuador extradite Dritan Rexhepi.

However, instead of being taken to court or prison, Dritan Rezepi found himself in Turkey, living in a luxurious seaside mansion in a suburb of Istanbul.

He had traveled there with a Colombian passport, as Benjamin Omar Pérez García combined, with characteristic impudence, some of the most common South American names.

Italian drug police agents found him and notified their Turkish colleagues, who made his arrest possible.

Although news of what will happen next with Dritan Rexhepi is unclear, as the Turkish government has reportedly approved his extradition to Albania, it is likely that sooner or later the Albanian drug lord will find a way to regain freedom of movement.

The Albanian cocaine cartel is on a growth trajectory and the big boss cannot waste his time.

Furthermore, demand for cocaine in Europe and production in South America are constantly increasing. In 2022, 2,757 tons of cocaine were produced, marking a 20% increase compared to the previous year.

Improved methods, and even improved varieties of the cocaine plant, mean that Colombia's land is producing twice as much as it did a decade ago.

And on the other hand, in terms of cocaine consumption, Europe has even surpassed the US, traditionally the largest market in the world.

This is shown by seizures of cocaine shipments in European ports, which increased fivefold between 2011 and 2021.

It is precisely the period when Dritan Rexhepi built his drug empire, stamping packages of cocaine with his "Bello Company" label.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×