The 37 packages of cocaine seized at the Port of Durres a day ago in the outer spaces of a refrigerated container with chicken meat are suspected to be linked to the group of Gerd Gjinarari , known as "The General", who was arrested a few months ago in Belgium.
The announcement was made by Belgian authorities who yesterday raided a group of Albanians involved in cocaine trafficking.
In Albania, the 37 packages of cocaine found on Monday in the container transporting chicken meat from Brazil to our country, according to media reports , were ordered by the company AMG Food , owned by Mondi Goxhaj .
But on the same day that it was discovered in the port of Durrës, authorities in Belgium announced the crackdown on an Albanian cocaine trafficking group in Antwerp, thanks to an investigation in cooperation with several countries, which had also led to the seizure of the drug in Albania.
The connection between the two events is made by the spokesperson for the Antwerp Prosecutor's Office, Kristof Aerts.
"As part of the investigation, close cooperation was developed with other countries and with Europol. This could result in arrests abroad. Following the intervention, a shipment of 37 kilograms of cocaine was seized in Albania, in a refrigerated container," said Kristof Aerts, spokesman for the Antwerp Prosecutor's Office.
The case has been referred to SPAK, which is expected to conduct a full investigation. The cocaine, which originated in Brazil, had previously transited through Greece.
In Antwerp, the drug trafficking group busted turned out to be linked to a well-known figure in the Albanian underworld, Gerd Gjinarari, who was also arrested in Belgium in June. Eight members of the group ended up in handcuffs, among them a 48-year-old Albanian man, suspected of being an intermediary between criminal groups in Albania and Latin America.
According to Belgian investigators, he provided connections for the importation of large quantities of cocaine through the port of Antwerp, and also had communications with drug trafficking groups in Europe and as far as Australia.
His name still remains a mystery, but it turns out that he was in contact with Gerd Gjinarari, a character with a long criminal past.
He was 23 years old when he killed Naim Zyberi in a hospital in Milan in 1997, and along with several other criminal offenses, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Milan Serious Crimes Court, a final decision since 2001.
In 2014, he was brought to Albania to continue his sentence, and in February 2019, he was released on bail by Judge Markelian Kuqo in Korça, shortly after being transferred to Drenova prison. When the Appeals Court decided to return him to prison a few weeks later, he had escaped.