The ruthless gang of drug dealers defeated by Dda and Finance of Trento: Albanians in South Tyrol, drugs and weapons

25 people are the recipients of the precautionary custody measure in prison for criminal association aimed at international drug trafficking. The investigation, called “Besa”, coordinated by the DDA of Trento and conducted by the Guardia di Finanza of Trento and by the carabinieri of the operational nucleus of Bolzano, unleashed a drug trafficking rooted in the Merano area and mainly managed by Albanian citizens domiciled between South Tyrol, Veneto, Puglia, Albania and Switzerland.
The investigation started at the beginning of 2018 and to date has led to 43 complaints, drug seizures for half a million euros between cocaine, hashish and marijuana, with a total of 25 kg seized, and an estimated turnover of approximately one million euros. The 25 measures, which are added to 12 arrests in the act and 6 complaints on the loose previously carried out, are in progress in these hours: 21 people – two Italians, sixteen Albanians, a Tunisian, a Kosovar and a Macedonian – are have already been taken to prison while 4 are wanted between Switzerland and Albania. Several suspects, almost all with specific precedents, are domiciled in Merano and surroundings, but – according to the prosecution – the association had set up an active shop tour throughout South Tyrol, with important ramifications in Veneto and Switzerland . According to what emerged from the investigations, the suspects domiciled abroad also had weapons available.

An autonomous organization in all respects, composed mainly of Albanian citizens, with direct contacts with the main South American drug trafficking cartels. This is one of the details that emerged from the “Besa” operation – which in Albanian means “pact of honor” – which defeated an international drug traffic that had one of the main bases of drug dealing in the Burgraviato area, in South Tyrol.
Cocaine, hashish and marijuana are the substances sold: the first one sent from Germany and Switzerland from the main ports of the Netherlands, the other two from Albania. Many of the suspects had settled in the peripheral areas of the Merano area, hoping perhaps not to give too much attention, but the drug dealing activity – for the investigators – would cover the whole of South Tyrol and also the province of Vicenza: two of the arrested are were identified in Palagiano and Massafra, in the province of Taranto, but at the time of the disputed facts were resident in Bressanone, while among the places of the shop, in addition to a nightclub and a pizzeria in Merano, a pizzeria in Appiano was also identified . The two pizzerias are said to be in the name of a Tunisian citizen involved in the traffic. The Guardia di Finanza will now launch a series of asset investigations on the three activities. One of the arrested was instead domiciled in Trento, in the Gardolo area.
Many of the subjects involved already had specific precedents, and in one case one of the arrested, according to the investigators, allegedly managed the illegal activity while he was still at home for drug dealing episodes. For the investigators, these are subjects “of considerable criminal thickness”, as explained by the captain of the carabinieri of the operational unit of Bolzano, Alessandro Coassin: “Almost all of them – he said – were moving large quantities of drugs, we almost never recorded passages with less of 50 grams of cocaine «. Consumers, on the other hand, as Francesco Sodano, former commander of the Gico di Trento and today at the Economic and Financial Police Unit, explained “are thousands and went from 13 years of age, with the very young who required marijuana and hashish, while cocaine was requested by consumers of slightly older age groups “.