The rapid downfall of Albania's most-feared drug gang

Telegraph

3 days ago

The Cela-Çopja clan was one of Europe's most powerful crime syndicates whose decisions dictated the price of cocaine across the continent.
Masterminded by its ringleaders Franc Çopja, 33, and Ervis Cela, 41, the Albanian gang smuggled billions of pounds worth of cocaine from Latin America into EU ports. It then laundered its assets through a sprawling commercial empire that included vast tracts of real estate, a five-star tourist resort, villas and apartments.
The drug lords amassed such vast quantities of cash that they even bickered on whether it was best to hide the banknotes under the roots of olive trees or convert them into gold bullion.
But in the space of just days, the cartel saw its operation brought to its knees with Çopja and Cela arrested alongside their senior lieutenants and its assets seized by SPAK – Albania's anti-corruption and organised crime taskforce.
In March 2021, investigators infiltrated Sky ECC, an encrypted messaging service, laying bare their alleged crimes.
Cela, who was wanted in Italy for torturing and murdering a rival Albanian pimp, was arrested alongside two of his brothers and eight other conspirators in a series of lightning raids in June and August.
Copja had been arrested in Belgium in Dec 2023 and is on trial for murder after being extradited from his mansion in Dubai.
He is considered the logistical brain behind the operation, securing the transfer of cocaine through ports in northern Europe.
'This criminal organisation can be considered one of the most powerful Albanian organisations in the international cocaine trade,' Altin Dumani and Vladimir Mara, prosecutors, said in a joint statement.
'It had the capacity to directly influence the price of cocaine in European markets and to manage large quantities of the narcotic substance in short periods of time,' they added.
The cartel is said to have controlled the entire chain of cocaine trafficking – from production and processing in laboratories in Paraguay, to international transport and distribution in European markets, and finally to the laundering and circulation of illicit proceeds in Albania and other countries.
A share of the group's cocaine is believed to have been trafficked across the English Channel to the UK where, according to the National Crime Agency, Albanian-speaking criminal gangs control a sizeable portion of its lucrative market.
A kilo of cocaine in the UK is estimated to be worth £40,000 compared to £20,000 in Europe.
According to Europol, Europe's police agency, Sky ECC was widely used for criminal purposes, including drug trafficking, money laundering, and the distribution of child sexual abuse material.
Although Sky ECC has been shut down, hundreds of millions of encrypted messages remain available and have been examined by law enforcement authorities across Europe and beyond for years.
A 282-page-long indictment issued on Aug 8 by SPAK, and seen by The Telegraph, reveals how the gang allegedly attempted to transport 28 tonnes of cocaine hidden in boxes of soap, cans of paint or industrial glue from Paraguay into the ports of Hamburg and Antwerp between 2020 and 2021.
On Feb 12 2021, 16.4 tonnes of high-purity cocaine stashed in 1,700 tins of wall putty, with an estimated street value of £3bn, was seized at the ports and was, at the time, the largest seizure of cocaine in Europe's history.
Another shipment, which successfully passed through the port of Antwerp in 2020, was worth £1.3bn.
The group developed a sophisticated system for transferring illicit drug trafficking proceeds from Europe to Albania, including the use of couriers for cash transfers and a so-called 'hawala' network, enabling the circulation of hundreds of millions of euros in cash.
Cela is said to have orchestrated the operation while on the run in Paraguay.
In one exchange on Dec 12 2020, Cela told Çopja that he planned to bury his euros in the roots beneath his grove of 200 olive trees in Albania.
However, Çopja warned that notes would rot underground and encouraged him to convert them into gold bullion.
'I have to rob a bank'
Cela replied: 'There's no gold... I have to rob a bank... I have to order it from Africa.'
Çopja said: 'I know somebody who can procure it [the gold] for us.'
'Ask him, whatever he has, 100/200 kilos,' replied Cela.
The conversation later drifted toward luxury watches and farmland.
By late afternoon the same day, Cela outlined plans to buy two farms for £10m in Paraguay, an investment that, by his estimate, would yield £1.8 million a year.
In a separate conversation with his brother over Sky ECC in Nov 2020, Cela wrote that £800,000 owed by one of their traffickers was delayed 'due to a downturn in the UK market'.
Cela had spent 11 years on the run before his arrest in the seaside village of Qeparo on the southern coast of Albania on June 29.
Along with his brother Ardian and accomplice Hiseni Fatos, he had been convicted in Italy of murdering Petrit Keci in Sept 2008 who had tried to muscle in on the group's prostitution ring in San Benedetto del Tronto.
The trio was convicted of beating Keci and shooting him six times in the head before burning his remains in an attempt to conceal the crime.
Cela was sentenced to 30 years in prison. His brother received 18 years.
The pair, however, managed to appeal the sentence and were held in pre-trial detention, but the time limit on the detention expired before they were re-convicted and they were released in May 2014, giving them the chance to flee abroad and lose themselves in the criminal underworld.
Cela will now have to serve a 21-year prison sentence for murder, kidnapping, attempted hiding of a corpse, threats, illegal possession of explosives and ammunition as well as obstruction of justice on top of any convictions he receives for drug smuggling and related offences.
One of the more stand-out assets seized by SPAK was the opulent 'Ajman Park' resort in Shijak, a town 27 kilometres west of the capital Tirana.
On its still active website, the hotel offers '24 hour security' for those who wish to rent its Greco-Roman style 'Marvel Palace' for wedding functions or dine at its Sushi and Steakhouse restaurant.
The seizures marked a rare intervention by Albanian authorities who have almost never launched investigations into the origins of the large-scale capital flowing into the country's tourism and construction sectors.