TIRANA, Sept. 21 – An Italian law enforcement agency, Guardia di Finanzia, has busted a large Greek-Albanian drug smuggling gang that supplied Italian organized crime groups with drugs.
According to Italian police, 99 people have been arrested. The operation, codenamed “Ring New” targeted about four different crime groups and followed four years of investigation.
Italian police collaborated with officials in Greece, Belgium and Albania and apprehended several suspects.
During the operation, officers also sequestered 117 kilograms of cocaine, 4,629 kilograms of marijuana, 90 kilograms of hashish, 850 grams of heroin or morphine, 554,000 euros in cash, seven cars, five trucks, two boats and one camper van. Guardia di Finanza said in a press release that the marijuana grown in Albania “would have reached the Italian coast via speedboats or fishing vessels, and would have been delivered across the country on large camper vans or hidden in trucks carrying oranges.”
Meanwhile, cocaine coming from Spain and the Netherlands, “would have been smuggled in Italy mixed with seafood, fruit and vegetable consignments delivered by road haulage firms set up by the drug traffickers in Belgium, Greece and Bulgaria.”
The investigation on the drug cartels was launched in 2012 after several Greek-Albanian criminals were arrested selling drugs to clans linked to the Camorra, Sacra Corona Unita and Ndrangheta mafia groups.
