This is the moment an Albanian drugs lord previously exposed in the Mail’s ‘Narcos’ documentary was flown to face justice after almost three decades on the run.
Dritan Rexhepi, nicknamed the ‘King of Cocaine’, had been on the run for over 27 years and was wanted in four countries.
During this time, he managed to always evade police capture for his crimes across Europe despite being in their eye and even being on a most wanted list issued by Scotland Yard in 2023 because of his close links to England.
It is believed he was behind the killing of the brother of a man suspected to have stolen a shipment of £20 million worth of cocaine to England that belonged to Rexhepi.
He is said to have been leader of an international drug cartel called Kompanio Bello, which transports drugs from South America to Europe.
He was arrested in November 2023 by armed police in Turkey and has now been extradited to his native Albania where he is expected to face justice for his crimes.
Ilir Proda General Director of Albanian police told The Sun the extradition of the international crime baro is a ‘huge achievement’, saying it sends a clear message that ‘one wanted Albanian fugitive can think he is safe where is hiding abroad’.
Rexhepi’s start in the world of crime began around the 1990s as a teenager.
Dritan Rexhepi, nicknamed the ‘King of Cocaine’, had been on the run for over 27 years and was wanted in four countries. Pictured: Rexhepi departing Istanbul
It is believed he was behind the killing of the brother of a man suspected to have stolen a shipment of £20 million worth of cocaine to England. Pictured: Rexhepi arriving in Albania
Dritan Rexhepi, the ringleader of the Kompanio Bello drug cartel, was wanted with a red notice
He was suspected of working as a contracted killer and was convicted of the murders of two police officers which happened in 1998.
By 2005, he appeared to try to make a 180-degree turn to his life by enrolling into law school.
However, just a year later he was detained by police in a luxurious hotel in the capital of Albania, Tirana, with a gun and taken into custody.
And it was that he managed to escape prison, one of three that we would go on to do, after picking a faulty lock in the interrogation room with his finger.
He was sentenced in absentia by a Tirana court for the murders of the two police officers.
In 2008 he was arrested in the Netherlands and extradited to Italy to be sentenced for drug trafficking but in 2011, along with two other inmates, they escaped by cutting through the bars of his cell and using red sheets as ropes to reach the ground before fleeing.
Later that year police managed to track him down in Spain and extradite him to Belgium, but again police guards did not hold up to his escaping skills and he managed to break out of jail in Antwerp by climbing over the wall.
It was then he turned to the UK when he caught the attention of Scotland Yard which published his photo and branded him one of the 17 most dangerous foreigners in the the country – he ended up moving to Ecuador.
He was arrested in November 2023 by armed police in Turkey and has now been extradited to his native Albania where he is expected to face justice for his crimes. Pictured: Rexhepi arriving in Albania
It was then he turned to the UK when he caught the attention of Scotland Yard, pictured, which published his photo and branded him one of the 17 most dangerous foreigners in the the country
It was here that in June 2014, with a different identity and appearance, he was arrested and remained unidentified for more than a month before his real identity was revealed through his fingerprints.
He went on to create a cocaine trafficking network which rivalled some of Mexico’s most powerful cartels.
This network, Kompania Bello, was dubbed one of the world’s ‘cocaine highways’ and ended up connecting Colombia and bringing drugs to Europe.
The drugs were shipped to the continent, entering through the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam, while the money was laundered through the Chinese fei ch’ien system.
Gang members were able to communicate through encrypted services and often had meetings to discuss new ways to carry out their crimes.
To be part of the group, members accepted that their families would be used for revenge if they ever betrayed the drug trade.
They were also recruiting new members from Albania, especially nationals living abroad like in the Netherlands and Italy.
While behind bars in the South American country, he continued masterminding the supply of vast quantities of cocaine to the UK – where he was a key target of the National Crime Agency.
In the Mail’s multi-media investigation in March, we revealed how Albanian narco gangs ensured you can now get cocaine in Britain quicker than a pizza delivery. In Ecuador, a ruthless local gangster who worked for a gang leader known as ‘Carlos the Devil’ told us of the terrifying bloodshed behind the operation to export cocaine to the UK.
The man, whom we called Junior, appeared too scared to answer questions about Rexhepi. Asked about Albanian gangsters, linked to a string of drug-related mob murders in Ecuador, he said: ‘If you fail, they kill’.
One prosecutor who has survived five assassination plots in Ecuador said of Albanian drugs lords there: ‘They are the masterminds and hire the hitmen’.
In highly suspicious circumstances, Rexhepi was released early from a 13 year sentence for drug trafficking in Ecuador. His jail term did not end his criminal operations.
From his prison cell in the capital Quito, he allegedly used an encrypted mobile phone to co-ordinate a ‘trans-national crime federation’ of Albanian drug traffickers known as Kompania Bello. A key destination for his illicit cargo was the UK, with its £2billion cocaine market.
Rexhepi is also believed to have ordered the murder of an innocent man after a rival Albanian drugs gang allegedly stole millions of pounds worth of cocaine which he had had smuggled to Portsmouth on a container ship full of bananas.
The victim’s only ‘crime’- he was kidnapped and killed in Albania – was to be the brother of someone who had supposedly double-crossed Rexhepi over the drugs consignment.
He is also accused of overseeing the kidnapping and killing of Jan Prenga – in December 2019 as he was linked to the disappearance of large quantity of cocaine in England.
Video showed a number of vehicles heading to the hideout in Istanbul, Turkey
Officials said the man nicknamed the ‘King of Cocaine’ entered Turkey via Istanbul Airport with a Colombian passport registered in the name of ‘Benjamin Omar Perez Garcia’
A police video of his arrest showed anti-narcotics officers in body armour removing cash, jewellery and watches from a safe at his hideout in an upmarket apartment block in Istanbul
The man was seen in dramatic footage being detained by armed Turkish police
‘Dritan Rexhepi, leader of the ‘Kompanio Bello’ drug cartel, exporting drugs from South America to Europe, was arrested,’ Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X
According to Europol, what set Rexhepi’s syndicate apart from others was the way in which it controlled the entire supply chain – from sourcing cocaine for export, to wholesale distribution and on to selling on the streets of cities such as Brighton, as we revealed in our documentary and Part One of the Mail investigation.
In 2020 the drug network was found and dismantled by Europol. Rexhepi was still in prison – but was released in 2021 and banned from leaving Ecuador.
Several months after his release from prison, the criminal mastermind disappeared off the radar in Ecuador – setting alarm bells ringing in the alleged narco state, the UK, elsewhere in western Europe and Albania.
The trail appeared to have gone cold until Rexhepi turned up in Turkey in a triumph for global law enforcement.
The Interpol notice was issued by the Italian and Albanian judicial authorities for crimes of ‘wilful murder, drugs, kidnapping/deprivation of liberty, forgery of travel documents, weapons and ammunition’.
Officials in Turkey said the man nicknamed the ‘King of Cocaine’ entered the country via Istanbul Airport with a Colombian passport registered in the name of ‘Benjamin Omar Perez Garcia’.
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