How does the Albanian mafia work in Ecuador? Very Strong and Violent

Talking about the presence of Mexican or Colombian cartels in Ecuador is no more surprising, especially during 2021 when the prison crisis broke out.

However, few have been told who is responsible for sending drugs to the old continent, Europe.

But a recently employed killer once again put the battle on the country's criminal drug organisations.

On January 22nd, at a restaurant in Guayaquil, an Albanian named Ergis Dashi was killed.

He was considered one of the directors of a drug gang and was therefore imprisoned in Italy between 2014 and 2017.

It wasn't the only time. In 2020, Albanian Adriatic Tresa was killed in Daule by men who entered his house dressed as policemen. At the time, authorities suggested that the event was related to drug trafficking.

Bureau Ramos, deputy national director of the Anti-drug Police Investigation, stressed that since 2015, Albanian presence related to drug trafficking in the country began to increase significantly.

He adds that five Albanian people have been arrested for drug trafficking. However, he confirms that the data does not guarantee that they are the only cases, the <x0 operations we perform are national or international, do not stop prosecuting in Europe”.

But why is Ecuador attractive to these mafias?

The main reason concerns increasing cocaine production, notes Mario Pazmiño, former military intelligence director and international security and defence analyst.

By this, Colonel Ramos, “in Colombia, as soon as 1300 tonnes of cocaine are produced, they have seen an opportunity to take that illicit substance through our country”.

Pazmiño completes the figure and says that according to Colombian intelligence sources, ” 37.5% of cocaine production in Colombia passes through Ecuadoran territory .” This percentage of drugs, he explains, “is roughly equal to 600 and 700 tonnes, from which we have seized 200 and slightly more, but the rest continue to flee through the Ecuadoran territory”.

In fact, between 2016 and 2019, Albania has seized a ton of drugs from Ecuador, Ramos discovered.

More voices confirm the theory. A report published in 2021 by the United Nations on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that Balkan groups, particularly Albanian-speaking groups, have won the largest share of the cocaine market in Europe and seek to buy it” directly into the source, cutting off the mediator. That means expanding their contacts in Latin America.

Family clans and Low Account

Although it is known that they operate in Ecuador since 2010, there is little information, Pazmiño says, but there are some particular characteristics: the Albanian “Mafia is a family-organised mafia, so it is an extremely solid structure. Very difficult to infiltrate and is very strong and violent, “he says.

More questions. How do they work? According to the former military intelligence director, it works this way: Albanian mafia operatives are responsible for contacting Mexican cartels and thus can send drugs to Europe, Asia or Africa. “Folders work for the Mafia and they're in charge of marketing”, he details.

Even so with the Colombian cartels, explains the National Director of Antidroga Investigation, “has discovered a relationship between irregular Colombian groups with Albanian mafia, FARC dissidents hold relations with these Albanian groups”. And according to Ramos, they not only use Ecuador to send drugs to Europe, “a part of the substances produced in Colombia, Peru passes through Brazil and Venezuela”.

Among the mobsters, Pazmiño explains, as in the megbands, there is a struggle for power to control the market, and that's when “executions --” occur.

In the same line, Colonel Ramos explains that they are violent, especially among them, “ai dealing with drug trafficking in Europe was the Italian mafia, they have already had conflict with them (with the Albanian mafia). But in our country, certain emissaries. Therefore, cases of Albanian dead have been installed by mafias”.

According to migration data, since 2017, more than 700 Albanians have entered the country. In 2019 it was the year with the highest influx of people of this nationality: 193.

But a mafia shouldn't necessarily be multiple, explains the former military intelligence director, “can be five or 10 people, if they have the contacts needed to move 100 or 200 tons, that's the point, they don't need to. quantity. ”

Thus, it is difficult to identify its size because, as explained earlier, “these are very discreet organisations and try to avoid attracting attention”. In addition, Deputy Director of Nardroga Investigation Byron Ramos points out that it cannot be said to have been embedded in Ecuador, as he recalls that the country is used mainly as a transit platform. /abcnews. al