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"The law student..."/ The shadows of Dritan Rexhepi, the drug cartel and spectacular escapes from prison...
2024-02-24 21:17:13 / AKTUALITET
Dritan Rexhepi is the Albanian who had a leading role in the drug network in Europe.
Before his arrest, he was one of the most wanted Albanians in the world.
Rexhepi escaped from prisons in three countries and was captured by Interpol in South America.
The most wanted man was arrested in Catalonia, Ecuador, three years after escaping from a prison in Belgium.
The Albanian was detained by the Ecuadorian police, as part of a group that was caught with 278 kilograms of cocaine. He had changed his appearance and identity, but fingerprints revealed that the arrested person was exactly the 34-year-old from Vlora, whose name was on the list of 10 most wanted persons by Interpol.
Dritan Rexhepi, described as the "master" of escapes, was not only wanted in Albania, where he is accused of murdering two policemen in 1999. It was precisely the Belgian state, where Dritan Rexhepi was arrested for the last time, but managed to escape from prison on October 2, 2011.
Throughout his stay in the high security prison in Ecuador, Rexhepi kept a phone in his cell where it is believed that he ordered and directed the trafficking of 283 kg of cocaine from the port of Guayaquil in Ecuador to the port of Portsmouth in England. This amount of drugs was stolen from a container of bananas in England and this event is suspected to be the reason for the kidnapping of Jan Prenga, the father of three children by order of Rexhep, on January 17, 2020 in Kamëz.
In 2021, Ecuador released him from prison with the restriction not to leave the country, but soon, Dritan Rexhepi, also known as the king of cocaine or the master of escapes, lost track and was no longer found by the police on November 8 when he arrested by the Turkish police.
How did the Albanian become the king of Narcos?
The story of this gangster begins in the turbulent 1990s in Albania. The savage dictatorship of Enver Hoxha has fallen and the nation is in transition. A few years later, Rexhepi told a journalist, explaining that "I had two options: surrender to the rotten and unjust system of Albania, which would sentence me to life imprisonment, or ask for a second chance doing something else with my life. That's why I got involved in drug trafficking."
Why should a law student fear a life sentence? This question was answered in 2013, when Rexhepi, now on the run, was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison by the Tirana court for two murders in 1998, one of which was a policeman. Not a simple student, then, but a skilled criminal whose career, which began in the reality of contract killings, would have resulted first in armed robbery – in Belgium – and then in drug trafficking.
Before arriving in Ecuador, Rexhepi crossed the Old Continent both as a prisoner and as a wanted man. Convicted by a local court of cocaine trafficking, he was identified in the Netherlands and from there extradited to Italy in 2008. He escaped from Voghera prison in 2011 by breaking through the bars and down the sheets, like in a movie. Captured in Spain a few months later and extradited to Belgium, where he was wanted for armed robbery, he was imprisoned in Antwerp. After escaping from there as well, this time he left Europe for Latin America.
Arriving in Ecuador, the criminal genius is helped by the country's most important trafficker, Cesar Emilio Montenegro Castillo, known as "Don Monti", who, in turn, is in business with the Colombian cartel of Norte del Valle and the undisputed king of drug kings, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Bello Company
Rexhepi was arrested in Quito in June 2014 during an operation that led to the seizure of 278 kilograms of cocaine. Sentenced to thirteen years in prison, by bribing a large part of the prison staff he was able to have various amenities, organize business meetings and have a mobile phone. Locked in a cell, but with a phone, Rexhepi uses his contacts in Europe to give life to Kompania Bello.
Dritan Rexhepi's crimes
Italian authorities accuse him of having ordered at least two murders while in prison, in Ecuador and Albania. The Albanian has denied his involvement in these crimes.
While in Albania, Dritan Rexhepi, until 2014, was on the top 10 most wanted list by Interpol Tirana.
In Albania, he is sentenced in absentia to 25 years of imprisonment, for the murder of two policemen in Fushë-Krujë, Arben Keqi and Durim Kasmi, an event that happened in 1998. The
Albanian police described him as the first paid killer at the time.
Also, SPAK accuses him of ordering the kidnapping of 49-year-old Jan Prenga on January 17, 2020. The victim was never found and is presumed dead.
In Barcelona, Spain, he is accused of robbing one of the biggest banks, the evening when all the fans were in the square celebrating the victory of the "Champions League" by the Barcelona team.
The drug "boss" had escaped from prison several times. In 2008, he escaped from Pavia prison in Italy, in the car of an elderly woman. As a result, the entire prison staff was dismissed.
He escaped the hands of the police in Albania as well. He was arrested in 2006 in the lobby of a hotel in Tirana with two pistols in his belt, but with the help of a police officer who left the door open for him, he escaped from the Durrës police station.
In October 2011, two months after being put in handcuffs, he escaped from a prison in Belgium, along with another convict. For this reason, he has been described as the "king" of escapes. /Alfapress.al
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