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NAME+PHOTO/ Cocaine by plane from Mexico to Britain, Albanian trafficker severely punished, posed with bundles of money
2026-05-18 10:13:11 / AKTUALITET
An Albanian drug supplier who met with traffickers who brought cocaine through Manchester Airport was "bragging" about his profits and posing for pictures surrounded by wads of cash. Elton Hallaçi, 32, played a key role in supplying multi-kilogram quantities of high-purity cocaine to criminals across the country.
Hallaçi and fellow Albanian Artur Iseberi, 28, travelled from their base north of Liverpool to Manchester Airport to meet with American couriers who had taken possession of the suitcases containing cocaine. The plot, organised by traffickers in America and Mexico, saw the couriers travel to the UK empty-handed and wait for the suitcases to arrive from flights to Cancun.
After collecting the drug-filled bags from the airport carousel, the couriers, who were American citizens, would take a short taxi ride to a nearby Holiday Inn to meet gangsters, including Hallac and Iseber. Once the pair took control of the bags, they would travel across the country to meet with criminal groups and sell bulk quantities of cocaine.
The thug drove an expensive car, which had a hidden compartment between the back seats and the trunk to smuggle drugs. He also took pictures of himself bragging surrounded by piles of cash. A judge told him this week that he "bragged" about his role in the vast conspiracy.
But after couriers mistakenly left one of the suitcases at the airport, leading authorities, including the National Crime Agency (NCA), to find a quantity of cocaine, Hallaçi and Iseberi were monitored and arrested.
Bolton Crown Court Judge Abigail Hudson told him on Friday: "While I accept there was someone above you, you played a leading role. You directed or organised the buying and selling of drugs on a commercial scale, you had influence over others in the chain, you must have had close links to the original source and you expected a significant financial advantage."
Hallaçi was sentenced this week to 21 years and seven months in prison, while his accomplice was sentenced to 18 years. Both men will be deported from the UK and returned to their home country, Albania, after serving the pre-trial portion of their sentences.
NCA Branch Commander Cat McHugh said: "The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to protect the public from the threat of Class A drugs. Drug smuggling is not a victimless crime. There is a trail of misery and harm from the source countries in South America to the streets of our cities."
"The Class A drug trade is inextricably linked to extreme violence that can have devastating consequences, we have seen completely innocent victims caught in the crossfire of feuding drug gangs. This does not concern offenders like these who are only interested in money."
NCA officers, who seized Hallaç’s car, discovered a number of notebooks detailing the records of the cocaine import. The documents, written in Albanian and fingerprinted by Hallaç and Iseber, showed that the drugs were to be divided into 30kg going to Bradford, 35kg going to London and 8kg to Birmingham.
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