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Washington Post: Dritan Rexhepi, the Albanian who built a global cocaine empire, rivals Mexico's cartels

Politiko 2024-12-29 18:40:13

Washington Post: Dritan Rexhepi, the Albanian who built a global cocaine empire,

In less than a decade, Dritan Rexhepi created a powerful cocaine trafficking network that connected the fields of Colombia with the ports of Ecuador and the roads of Europe.

Italian and Latin American investigators have reported on Rexhepi's growing influence, making him a potential rival to Mexico's most powerful cartels, the Washington Post writes.

Rexhepi's response to this rich market has been successful, and the cocaine industry has grown and diversified significantly.

South America now produces more than twice as much cocaine as it did a decade ago, tripling the cultivation of coca crops in Colombia and significantly increasing the amount of land used for this purpose.

In 2022, global cocaine production reached a record 2,757 tons, a 20 percent increase compared to 2021, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The UN's Thomas Pietschmann has stressed that, despite the rise of synthetic drugs, cocaine still remains a leader in the global drug market.

Despite billions of dollars spent by the US to combat drug trafficking in Latin America, the industry has continued to grow and globalize, with new routes and markets, including Ecuador, which is one of the key transit points for cocaine. Cocaine use in Europe has seen a huge increase, making it a rival to the US as a major destination for the drug.

Balkan criminal groups, including Albanian, Italian, Turkish and Russian, are also involved in the cocaine market in Latin America. Marco Martino, a senior Italian police official, points out that Albanians are the ones who dominate this market.

Albanian criminal networks have played a key role in transporting cocaine to Europe and increasing its consumption on the continent.

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