AfriPulse
Albanian smuggling gangs are using frogmen to retrieve cocaine stashed on the underside of cargo ships – as this new graphic shows.
Traffickers have long been known to hide packages of drugs in container vessels before using smaller boats to bring them to shore.
The use of undersea divers, who require specialist training, is a further sign gangs are refining their techniques to make them even harder to detect.
Six Albanians – five men and a woman – were arrested in the small Norwegian port of Husnes in 2023 after travelling there to meet a cargo ship coming from Brazil.
When the Nordloire arrived, one of the group dived down to retrieve more than 150kg that had been concealed in a water intake vent below the ship’s waterline.
Gangs increasingly favour so-called ‘parasite’ smuggling because it avoids the need to bribe the ship’s crew to turn a blind eye.
Instead, a team in South America unscrew a grill over the vessel’s ‘sea chest’ – a recessed compartment where water is pumped for cooling – before slipping a waterproof package inside.
Fitted with Apple AirTags for tracking, the parcel can then be removed in Europe by divers, who are able to swim from more a kilometre away.
Leonardo Landi, an Italian anti-narcotics police chief who helped catch the divers in 2023, said the crew would often have no idea their ship was being used to carry drugs.
‘By the time the ship is waiting to enter a port in Europe a team of divers return at night using two to four electric sleds, which allow them to swim from a kilometre away,’ he told The Times.
‘It’s not easy, the ship’s propellers may be turning to keep the ship stationary, which is why they get paid up to €300,000 to remove the drugs.’
Mr Landi said gangs using the method were increasingly Albanian – reflecting a broader takeover of Europe’s cocaine trade by gangs hailing from the country.
Police credit the Albanian mafia’s takeover of Europe’s cocaine market with a decision taken decades ago to forge direct links with South American cartels.
By cutting out middlemen, they can secure larger volumes of the drug at a cheaper price.
The Albanians are also said to have forged close links with the Italian ‘Ndrangheta, which dominates the cocaine market in mainland Europe, while gaining a reputation for professionalism and reliability.
Last year, a leaked Home Office legal document described Albanian criminal gangs as an ‘acute threat’ to the UK and ‘highly prevalent across serious and organised crime’ in Britain – including several murders.
Six Albanians – five men and a woman – were arrested in the small Norwegian port of Husnes in 2023 after heading to receive 150kg worth of cocaine (pictured)
The huge stash of cocaine in the back of a car. The drugs were contained in waterproof parcels
The use of frogmen is far from the first time gangs have used sophisticated methods to carry drugs underwater.
Submersibles dubbed ‘narco-subs’ have been used for decades to smuggle drugs from South America to the USA, and have more recently appeared in Europe.
The first submarine linked to drug smuggling in Europe was found off the coast of Spain in 2006.
In 2019, police intercepted a 65-foot vessel off the coast of Galicia and found three men onboard.
Astonishingly, it is believed to have sailed across the Atlantic from Colombia – a journey of 4,778 nautical miles.
Peter Walsh, author of Drug War: The Secret History, said it was ‘feasible’ such vessels – which are usually unnamed – were operating in UK waters too.
‘I’ve not seen evidence of it yet, but it’s plausible,’ he previously told the Mail
‘When gangs use boats to pick up drugs there’s always the risk of those onboard being caught. Then you don’t only lose your drugs – they could flip on you too.
‘That means there would be a double advantage of using unmanned drones for this type of trafficking.’
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘When foreign nationals commit serious crimes in our country, we will always do everything in our power to deport them.
‘This government deported almost 5,200 foreign national offenders in its first year in office, a 14 per cent increase on the previous year, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.’
Source: Dailymail.co.uk | Read the Full Story…
