By the trace of the largest cocaine road to Europe and the role of the Albanian Mafia – BBC News in Serbian
« Albanian mafia would invite me and tell me: ‘We want to send 500 pounds of drugs.’ If you don’t accept, kill you. «
Caesar (Not his real name) is a member of Latin kings, criminal drug cartel in Ecuador.
He was recruited by a corrupt police officer from the anti-narcotics department to work for the Albanian mafia, one of the most productive cocaine spreading networks in Europe.
The Albanian Mafia has expanded the presence in Ecuador in recent years, attracted to key routes for trade through the country and now controls most inflows of cocaine from South America for Europe.
Despite the fact that Ecuador does not produce this drug, 70 percent of world cocaine is now going through his ports, says President Ecuador Danijel Nobo.
He smuggled into the country from neighboring Colombia and Peru – two largest cocaine manufacturers in the world.
Police say she seized a record amount of illegal drugs last year, mostly Kokan, and that indicates that the total amount of export exports.
The consequences are deadly: in January 2025. It was more than 780 murders, making it the deadliest month of recent years.
Many of them were associated with an illegal drug trade.
We talked to people in the supply chain to understand why this crisis deteriorates and how the increase in European Cocaine consumption is encouraged.
Caesar (36) first began working with cartellas when he was 14, stating bad job opportunities as one of the factors.
« Albanians needed someone to solve their problems, » he explains.
« I knew the guards of the ports, carriers, security cameras supervisors. »
He shims them to smuggle drugs into equator’s ports or to turn around or extinguish some camera.
After cocaine arrives in Ecuador from Colombia or Peru, holding in warehouses until Albanian employers find out about the ship’s container that will soon travel for a European port.
The gangs use three main methods for inserting cocaine in decade: hiding drugs in shipment before arriving in the port, burglary in containers in the port or inserting drugs on the open sea ships.
Sometimes Caesar earns up to $ 3,000 per work, but the incentive is not just money: « If you don’t work that Albanians look for, they will kill you. »
Caesar says that somewhat regrets his role in drug trafficking, especially because of what he calls « collateral victims ».
But he believes that they are the fault of the beneficiary countries.
« If the consumption rate grows, rose and sales. It will be unstoppable, » he says.
« If they fighted there, it will end here. »
Watch the video: Ecuador – From a quiet place to conflict Narko Bandi
In the rale of this supply chain, the regular workers are involved, not only members of the gang.
Huan (not his real name) is a trucker.
One day he picked up the tuna consignment to transport her to the port.
He says something wasn’t there anyway.
« The first alarm rang on the alarm when we arrived in the warehouse and there was only one load and nothing else. It was a rented warehouse, the company did not have a name, » he recalled.
« Two months later, I saw on the news that the containers were seized in Amsterdam, full of drugs. We didn’t have a clue. »
Some drifters not knowing drug transport; Others are forced to it – if they refuse, they will be killed.
European gang attracts Ecuador because of its location, but also its legal exports, which provide a convenient way to hide illegal cargo.
« Banana exports accounts for 66 percent of the container leaving Ecuador, 29.81 percent of them go to the European Union, where the drug consumption is on the rise, » explains the representative of the Banana Hose Antonio Idalgo representative.
Some gangs even founded fake companies for export or import fruits in Europe and Ecuador as a screen for illegal activities.
« These European smugglers are as businessmen, » says Joza (he is not the right name), a prosecutor who chased organized criminal groups and who told us anonymously for the threats he regularly received.
An notorious example is Dritan Djikaaccused of being one of the most powerful Albanian mafia leaders in Ecuador.
Prosecutors say he has a share in companies for fruit exports in Ecuador and fruit import companies in Europe, which are used for cocaine smuggling.
He is on the run, but many of his accomplices are convicted after a multinational police operation.
The lawyer of Monika Luzaraga defended one of his associates and now speaks open about her knowledge how these networks operate.
« In those years, banana exports to Albania jumped into heaven, » she says.
It sounds dissatisfied that the authorities did not collect two and two earlier that criminal groups use it as a screen.
« The entire economy is stagnating here. And yet one item that jumped with the exports of Banana. So two plus two are equal four. »
Why is export to grow
In Ecuadoric ports, police and armed forces try to control the situation.
Boats patrolling waters, police scan Banana boxes looking for « bricks » cocaine – even police divers seek drugs hidden beneath ships.
Everyone is hard-armed, even those who only store bananas boxes before they are loaded into ship containers.
This is because if a drug is found during the search, a corrupt port worker will probably be involved, and that could cause violent incident.
Despite these efforts, the police say that the amount of cocaine that successfully smugglers from Ecuador reached record height.
The growth of demand and economic factors are blamed for this.
Last year, almost 300 tons of drugs were seized – a new annual record, according to the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Interior.
Major Kristijan Kozar Kueva from the National Police says that « about 30 percent of consignment seizures for Europe » came in recent years.
This increase in cocaine consignments has made the whole situation more dangerous for those who are caught in the supply chain.
The trucker « Juan » says that the growth of « contamination of containers » makes it more vulnerable.
He says officials of the day, seized the container with two tons of cocaine.
« It used to be two pounds, we’re talking tonnes now. »
« If you don’t contaminate containers, you have two options: to leave the job or finish the dead. »
The economy that destroyed the covid pandemic left more residents of Ecuador to more susceptible to gang.
The state that was financially ruined after the pandemic, the security forces that had less experiences in the fight against organized crime and previously indulgent rules for visa led to European gangs there after 2020. years.
Monika Luzaraga says that 2021. was the year when the Albanian Mafia infiltration was « vinula.
She says this period coincided with the « Naval » of Albanian citizens and jumping banana exports, even in Albania.
« It is an extremely lucrative job that harms Ecuador and uses criminal organizations.
« How can we accept the economy built on suffering? ».
Message for Europe
This wrath towards foreign cartels is not surprising, keeping their contribution to the growth of violence.
But there is one thing about some smugglers and those who fight against them: trade encourage consumers, especially in Europe, the United States and Australia.
The UN data show that world consumption of cocaine reached record height.
Her surveys show that the UK has the second largest rate of cocaine in the world.
The British National Anti-Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that the United Kingdom consumes about 117 tons of cocaine per year and has the largest market in Europe.
The evidence shows that spending in the UK is on the rise.
The analysis of the British Houm Office over wastewater shows that cocaine consumption increased by 7 percent from 2023. To 2024. years.
In NCA operations 2024. About 232 tons of cocaine were seized, unlike 194 tons from 2023. years.
Watch the video: tried to smuggle cocaine under the wig, then arrested
The Deputy Director of NCA for evaluation of the threat of Charles Jates says this makes the UK « Earth Election » for organized criminal groups earning from high demand.
He estimates that the British cocaine market is worth about $ 14.2 billion, and that criminal gangs earn about four billion dollars a year only in the UK.
Those who fight these gangs in Ecuador, such as the prosecutor Jose, say that it is in « countries whose citizens of Cocaine are Cocaine to implement the stricter control of » those funded by that trade.
Their victims come in various forms.
For idalg, these are banana exporters that suffer financial and damage per reputation.
For Lazarag, they are « children, adolescents that recruit criminal gangs. »
« In Europe you have citizens willing to pay large amounts of money to get drugs they spend. Drug that eventually citizens of Ecuador pay the lives. »
NCA points out that in addition to these « catastrophic » consequences for community along the entire supply chain, the use of cocaine takes additional victims among users due to cardiovascular and psychological consequences.
Death caused by cocaine in the UK jumped by 30 percent in 2023. years compared to 2022. Year, at 1.118.
NCA also warns that drugs exacerbate domestic violence.
He unequivocally puts that efforts to implement orders and laws are not enough: « The action on the offer in itself will never be a solution. What is important to change demand. »
From the members of Narko Bandi to the President of the Earth, this is the message of Ecuador and for Europe.
The President of Daniel Nobo, who runs for the second term in the second round of the presidential election 13. April, made the fight against criminal gangs to one of his priorities and hired the army to fight violence gangs.
He said for the BBC, « The chain ending ‘fun in the UK’ implies very much violence. »
« What is fun for one person probably comprises 20 kills by the way. »
Additional reporting: Jessica Cruz
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