Greece hits 4 Albanian drug trafficking organizations

2024-12-06 21:04:49, Kronika CNA

The Greek police said they hit five organizations suspected of drug trafficking, among which four were composed of Albanian citizens and one of Greek citizens. According to the Greek police, over 20 people have been arrested, including 15 from Albania.

According to the Greek police, the persons are accused of importing drugs into Greece, mainly marijuana, in about 1 ton and 780 kilograms, as part of organizations that cooperated with each other.

Likewise, the arrested are suspected, according to the Greek police, of having trafficked cocaine from Spain to Albania and Greece, hidden in trucks with legal products.

The amount of drugs circulated by these drug networks, according to the Greek police, amounts to more than 8 million dollars.

According to the Greek police, based on the communications data through the encrypted applications "Sky ECC" and "EncroChat" which are now in the hands of the Greek police, light has been shed on 70 cases of drug trafficking that spanned the period from March 2020 to March 2021 .

According to the Greek police, one of the suspects in one of the drug trafficking networks is Aleksandër Sadikaj, who was killed in Albania in an assassination attempt by the explosion of a bomb in his car in June 2022.

The Greek police said that a 36-year-old Greek woman, the main accused in the case of trafficking 1.5 tons of cocaine in Mimizan, in the south of France, in July 2017, had an important role in one of the organizations.

Greek police have also shed light on how members of the network used encrypted applications.

"Through specific applications, users could exchange encrypted messages that self-destructed once sent, while special security codes, PINs, were set to use specially modified mobile devices," Greek police said.

According to Greek police investigations, each user paid 1,500 euros per month to use the applications.

In the period 2020-2021, the European police agency "Europol" together with the national police authorities of France, Belgium and the Netherlands managed to crack the encrypted applications "Sky ECC" and "EncroChat" and then distribute the communications of criminal organizations to their counterparts of them in many countries, including Greece and Albania./ VOA