Dritan Rexhepi, head of the "Kompania Bello" drug cartel, is arrested in Istanbul

Dritan Rexhepi, accused of being the head of an international drug cartel, was arrested in Istanbul. The news was given by the Turkish authorities, who also published footage from the arrest of the much-wanted Albanian.

According to them, Rexhepi, whose real name is Gramoz, was arrested after an operation carried out in the Turkish city by the Italian and Albanian authorities.

Rexhepi is accused of trafficking large quantities of drugs from South America to Europe. According to him, the charges of intentional murder and kidnapping, falsification of documents and possession of weapons without a permit are also aggravated.

The location of the cartel leader was determined as a result of the joint work carried out by the Turkish police, the Istanbul Narcotics Crime Branch, the Intelligence Branch, the Anti-Smuggling and Immigrant Border Crossing Branch and the exchange of information with the Italian Police .

Dritan Rexhepi, arrested in Istanbul on behalf of Albanian and Italian justice, has a series of convictions and accusations brought against him.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Court of Serious Crimes for the murder of two people with firearms on January 6, 1999. But even though he had a conviction, he was on the list of most wanted by Albanian justice.

Rexhepi is also accused of organizing and ordering the hostage-taking of Jang Prenga (who later died), after his brother, who was involved in drug trafficking, had not delivered a quantity of 260 kilograms of cocaine. 

In 2020, Interpol published several photographs of Rexhepi, from inside a prison in Ecuador, where he was serving a sentence for drug trafficking. Rexhepi is suspected of being the leader of the cocaine trafficking network to Europe, a network destroyed in 2020 by a Europol operation, which involved the State Police, among others. He was arrested in 2014 with 240 kg of cocaine in Ecuador, but is suspected of directing cocaine trafficking operations from his cell. (A2 Televizion)