In a major operation, Italian police have arrested 33 Albanians believed to be trafficking drugs along Italy’s east coast.
The Carabinieri of Chieti, in Abruzzo, coordinated by Aquila's Anti-Mafia Prosecutors’ Office, launched the operation against the alleged mobsters on Sept. 19. They are accused of selling heroin, cocaine, hashish and marijuana to local networks in Abruzzo, Marche and Puglia.
Prosecutors have charged seven of the 33 with international Mafia-type affiliation and are seeking the arrest of another four in Spain (two Spaniards and two Albanians). Nine more suspects are still on the run.
Said Marshal Vincenzo Maresca, “We started investigating this Albanian group back in 2011, when they sold 2.5 kilos of cocaine to two alleged Cozzolino clan members of the Italian Camorra, who were followed and arrested for Mafia affiliation”.
The Albanians allegedly brought low-priced heroin into Italy: € 12,000 (US$ 15,300) per kilo, half the average price in Italy.
Thirty kilos of heroin were seized and investigators traced international money transfers to members of the group in Spain, Bolivia and Albania, allegedly to buy yet more drugs to sell in Italy.
Maresca said it was a family affair. “Working with the key suspect, 35-year-old Dashi Ergis, were his mother, his sister-in-law and several uncles. Some were resident in Italy for a long time; others had only just arrived.”
The Carabinieri believes the group worked out of Abruzzo because the region lacks local Mafia, leaving space for other criminal networks. The Albanian group allegedly worked from Tuscany to the south, extending its business throughout the Bel Paese.
“This is a very mobile type of group, which is not willing to put down roots where it works,” Maresca says. “Usually they remain something like 10 years in a country, and then they are ready to move somewhere else to avoid being caught.”
