ARREST OF 45 AFFILIATES OF A MAFIA-TYPE ALBANIAN ORGANIZATION ENGAGED IN INTERNATIONAL DRUGS TRAFFICKING AND MONEY LAUNDERING

On 15 February 2022, the DIA participated in a vast joint police operation with police and judicial authorities from seven countries. This operation dismantled a mafia-type Albanian organization engaged in international drugs trafficking and money laundering.

The criminal organization imported from South America huge quantities of cocaine for the European market by using sea vessels and aircrafts.

Spain and other EU countries were used for complex money-laundering operations of the criminal proceeds totalling an estimated several million euros.

Overall, 80 searches, 45 arrests were carried out, drugs, arms and assets for a total value of 2 million euros was seized.

The dangerous criminal mafia-type group established a number of companies in Mallorca (ES), in Germany and Croatia aimed at laundering the huge proceeds of crime, using frontmen, encrypted communication devices and regularly travelling to Dubai, Mexico and Colombia.

This joint operation is the outcome of a complex international investigation involving the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia (D.I.A.) and LEAs from Belgium, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Croatia and the United Kingdom, in agreement with the International Police Cooperation Service. Over 600 police officers as well as Special Units, coordinated by Eurojust and Europol, were engaged.

The successful operation is also owed to the support of the Operational Antimafia Network @ON, whose activities are funded by the European Commission through the “ISF4@ON Project no. 101052683”, in which the DIA is Project Leader and 31 LEAs representing 26 countries participate.

During the Action Day, three operational rooms were set up at the international level, in Brussels, Palma de Mallorca and Den Haag (Eurojust), with the participation also of DIA investigators.

In particular, the following LEAs were involved:

• Belgium: Police Judiciaire Fédérale;
• Croatia: Police for the fight against criminal organizations and corruption (Policijski nacionalni ured za suzbijanje korupcije);
• Germany: Federal Criminal Police (Bundeskriminalamt + Landeskriminalamt in Hamburg);
• Italy: I.A. Field Office in Florence, the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia and the Arma dei Carabinieri;
• Spain: Guardia Civil and Policía Nacional;
• Netherlands: National Police (Politie);
• United States: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Rome, 16 February 2022