Albania requests Turkey to extradite Dritan Rexhepi

The Ministry of Justice has requested the Turkish Justice to extradite Dritan Rexhep to our country.

 "The Ministry of Justice informs you that today, on 22.11.2023, it forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be sent to the Ministry of Justice of Turkey, the file prepared with the request for extradition to Albania of the citizen, Dritan Rexhepi!

His file, with the request for the extradition of the citizen Dritan Rexhepi, was initiated based on the requests submitted by SPAK and the General Prosecutor's Office to the Ministry of Justice on 16.11.2023 and 17.11.2023", the announcement states .

Who is Dritan Rexhepi, the Albanian "king" of drug trafficking

Dritan (Gramos) Rexhepi, escaped from the prisons of three countries, has been described as the first paid killer in Albania. He is accused in Albania of killing two policemen.

His name is also related to the kidnapping of Jan Prenga in Kamëz in January 2020, as his brother Astrit Prenga allegedly stole a significant amount of cocaine in England that came from Latin America, and that belonged to Dritan Rexhepi.

 "The various documents in the requested countries identify him as the "undisputed king" with access to "endless amounts of cocaine" from the Bello Company, a cartel composed of 14 Albanian criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking and which, according to the authorities , it has been operating since 2014 in Ecuador, the Netherlands, Belgium, Albania and Italy," The Wall Street Journal wrote in November 2021.

How the criminal career began

In 1999, when he was still a teenager (19 years old), Kalashnikov fired at the police in a bar. It is suspected that he was paid for the assassination and his bullets also killed someone else. The police arrested Rexhepi only in January 2006 in Tirana, in one of the most luxurious hotels of the capital, with an illegal pistol-type weapon. Rexhepi was transferred to the premises of the Durrës Police Directorate, which had jurisdiction over the Kruja area. That same evening, Rexhepi escaped from the interrogation room after picking a faulty lock with his finger and telling a guard that the police were done with him. The court later convicted him in absentia of murder. It was the first of three prison breaks after European police chased him across the continent on drug-trafficking and other charges.

The "master" of prison escapes

Rexhepi would be arrested in 2008 in the Netherlands on account of Italian justice in connection with a conviction for drug trafficking. In 2011, he also escaped from Voghera prison in Italy after sawing the bars of the cell and escaped.

After a few months, he was arrested in Spain as a member of a gang suspected of robbing a bank in Barcelona. He was not held long in the cell there, but the Spanish authorities decided to extradite him to Belgium where he was wanted for several serious crimes. Rexhepi would again escape from Antwerp prison by climbing over a wall.

The next time police caught him was in Ecuador in June 2014, in possession of more than 272kg of cocaine, according to Interpol, the international police organisation. Although imprisoned, Rexhepi managed the cocaine traffic as if he were free from his cell, through a telephone. He was allied with an Ecuadorian drug trafficker with ties to powerful cartels in Colombia and Mexico. Cocaine was shipped across the Atlantic in container ships, mainly to Dutch ports.

While in prison in Ecuador in November 2021 he asked for freedom, known as a semi-open regime. This right, which was denied in previous cases, was accepted this time. According to this right, he had to stay in Ecuador until June 26, 2027, when his sentence for drug trafficking ends, but serving his sentence in prison. Rexhepi, who is also known by the names Lulëzim Murataj or Edmir Kraja, had to appear every 15 days before the social reintegration unit in Guayaquil. Rexhepi was favored with the semi-open regime after serving at least two-fifths of his sentence. Also, on November 4, 2021, it is mentioned that the Albanian capo "has a very good behavior", in addition, he does not record escape attempts, and also has a work report. Rexhepi had assured the authorities that he would live in an apartment in the Central Park of Samborondón, 14 kilometers from Guayaquil. In this private housing complex, an apartment of 125 m2 can cost from 165,000 USD. However, as stated in the report, on February 10, 2022, Rexhepi was authorized to change his address, but the new address is not recorded. Had he "disappeared" again?

Created his "brand" in the cocaine trafficking business

Rexhepi had under his direct orders a number of Albanians in Ecuador, the Netherlands, Italy and Albania and business partners in most of Western Europe who controlled cocaine distribution channels across the continent. As Rexhep's group expanded, he sought to differentiate himself from the groups operating in the international traffic market.

"Let's go to the market with our name", the coordinator of the group in Italy wrote to Rexhepi in March 2016. "Our brand is still not known". Rexhepi replied, proposing the name Bello. The group's cocaine bricks were quickly branded with this brand. Rexhepi led the Bello company with charisma and violence. He ordered attacks and at least two murders, one in Ecuador and one in Albania, according to Italian police. Dritan Rexhepi is accused of being the head of a powerful international drug trafficking group from Latin America to Europe.