TIRANA, Oct. 29 – Italian and Albanian authorities have busted a powerful criminal organization, which police say is responsible for selling massive amounts of heroin in northern Italy.
At least 16 people have been arrested in both countries, and five others are still wanted by authorities. Two of the arrests were made in Albania, where assets worth 10 million euros were also seized, including a large resort in Durres.
Drugs loaded on passenger cars and trucks, arrived in the region of Veneto, where the group had its logistical bases for processing and preparing the heroin for sale throughout northern Italy, police said in a statement.
“The criminal organization was able to bring into the Italian market up to 1 ton of heroin a year, and it had its leaders in Albania,” police said at a press conference.
The organization was headed by brothers Altin and Emiljano Hajri, 31 and 28, both from Shijak in Durres County, according to police.
The two were not among the 16 people arrested – all between 27 to 38 years of age.
The organization had several branches in Italy and Albania, and logistics included transferring cash to Albania via couriers to be invested in real estate, according to authorities.
They added the organization had been built under the structure of a resistance group – in which one part of the organization did not know of the other’s existence in order to thwart law enforcement.
They also communicated through an alphanumeric code, renewed periodically, which why the police operation was dubbed “Enigma,” in reference to the secret code machine used by the Nazis during World War II.
During the busts, Italian police seized nearly 200 kilograms of heroin and 300 kilograms of marijuana and destroyed two drug labs.
