An alleged Albanian cocaine kingpin based in Ecuador and arrested last week in the United Arab Emirates is accused of using the Middle Eastern country as a money laundering hub, according to court documents obtained by OCCRP.
The documents come from a case in Ecuador, where Dritan Gjika is charged with leading a powerful drug trafficking organization. Gjika, 48, was arrested on May 26 in the UAE city of Abu Dhabi on an Ecuadorian warrant.
In February, the State Attorney General’s Office named Gjika “the leader of Albanian mafia operations in Ecuador.” The court documents obtained by OCCRP reveal details of the group's operations, both in Ecuador and the UAE.
Ecuadorian prosecutors accuse Gjika and his collaborators of using several companies to ship drugs from the South American country to Europe hidden in cargoes of bananas. To launder the illicit profits, they allegedly relied on companies in the UAE as well as Spain, the documents say.
The evidence collected by police and prosecutors was strong enough to convince a judge to authorise an international warrant for Gjika's arrest, so he could be brought to trial in Ecuador, documents show.
Gjika's lawyer did not reply to a request for comment.
The court documents include extracts from communications intercepted by authorities, which provide a window into the way cash was transferred into banks and cleaned.
One document — known in Ecuador as an “audiencia de vinculación a la instrucción fiscal” in which prosecutors lay out their case — records Gjika and an “unidentified financial partner” discussing “the need to move large sums of cash using intermediaries.”
That document cites another intercepted communication between Gjika and someone working with a Dubai company.
“Keep transfers below 50,000, so we don't alert the authorities," Gjika is quoted as saying.
Still, authorities did become suspicious.
“The transactions in these accounts include irregular deposits, most of them in cash, which have raised red flags with financial authorities,” the document states. “In addition, multiple transfers to international accounts were detected, prompting increased scrutiny.”
Ecuador’s National Police said in a May 26 statement, adding that it is now going through the process of extraditing him from the UAE. Spanish law enforcement were involved in Gjika’s arrest, police added.
The National Police said Gjika had arrived in Ecuador in 2009 on a temporary visitor visa, but later became “one of the most wanted men in the country,” leading a group that shipped drugs to Central America, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.
An Ecuadorian court convicted eight members of the crime group in January for “the crime of laundering money from drug trafficking.”
