Dritan Rexhepi, potentially the most sought-after Albanian across numerous countries globally for a string of crimes, primarily linked to the trafficking of cocaine from Latin American nations to Europe, was apprehended on Friday in Istanbul.
The disclosure came from Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, who revealed that the Albanian had entered Turkey using a Colombian passport under the alias Benjamin Omar Perez Garcia. His arrest unfolded within the premises of a villa, where authorities discovered weaponry, substantial sums of money, and illicit substances. Subsequently, the Albanian Police informed that the Central Office of Interpol in Tirana and pertinent judicial institutions promptly initiated procedures for his extradition.
İstanbul’da düzenlenen "KARTEL OPERASYONU" ile İtalya ve Arnavutluk makamlarınca;
🟥 Kırmızı Bülten’le aranan ve Güney Amerika’dan Avrupa’ya uyuşturucu sevkiyatı yapan "KOMPANİO BELLO" isimli uyuşturucu Kartelinin lideri Dritan REXHEPI yakalandı❗️Aziz Milletimiz bilmesini… pic.twitter.com/4cbWMYNQgg
— Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) November 10, 2023
Rexhepi boasts a criminal record dating back to the late ‘90s in Albania, notably being the perpetrator behind the murders of two police officers in Fushë Kruja in 1998. Although apprehended in 2006, he managed to escape in a peculiar turn of events from the Durrës police station during the course of interrogations.
Internationally declared wanted, Rexhepi faced a significant legal setback in 2013 when the First Instance Court for Serious Crimes sentenced him to 25 years in prison. The charges included “premeditated murder” committed collaboratively, “serious intentional injury” committed collaboratively, and “unauthorized possession and production of weapons, explosives, and ammunition”.
In 2015, the First Instance Court in Fier imposed a 4-year prison sentence on Rexhepi for offenses such as “forgery of documents, passports, or visas” under aggravated circumstances and “forgery of seals, stamps, or forms” under aggravated circumstances.
Meanwhile, Rexhepi operated an extensive cocaine trafficking network for several years, encountering arrests in Italy and Belgium, yet managing to evade imprisonment on both occasions. His apprehension in Ecuador in 2014, as part of a broad anti-drug operation, led to a 13-year prison sentence in 2015. However, he was released under surveillance in November 2021. From Ecuador, Rexhepi is suspected of orchestrating the abduction and subsequent execution of Jan Prenga in December 2019 as retribution against Prenga’s brother, whom Rexhepi deemed responsible for the disappearance of a substantial quantity of cocaine in England.
Dritan Rexhepi is acknowledged as the ringleader of a drug cartel named “Kompania Bello”, comprising 14 Albanian organizations. Europol, in 2020, declared the cartel potentially dismantled following the “Los Blancos” police operation conducted across 10 European countries.
