 |
| The special officers accompanying Edmond Dodaj |
"Edi" Edmond Dodaj, a 42-year-old Albanian, who has been sought in Italy for the past 10 years, as he is to serve a 15-year prison sentence for an association involved in international drug trafficking, was arrested in Albania, in the city of Kurbini.
Dodaj's arrest on August 24th has echoed in Italian media.
He carries dozens of convictions for drug-related crimes, all committed in Northern Italy between 2006 and 2008, a true "drug lord" of the Balkans.
According to investigations, Dodaj was the head of an organization based in Milan, responsible for importing tons of cocaine from the Netherlands, which was then distributed through drug trafficking networks in central and northern Italy. Alongside him, the group included his brothers and cousins, also Albanian.
Sentences against "Edi" had never been executed in Italy, as he became untraceable since 2013.
However, in recent weeks, the Carabinieri of the Catturandi section of the investigative unit in Milan, led by Commander Domenico Rana, managed to close in on Dodaj.
Border movements and certain mistakes made by his "associates" proved fatal for him.
Thus, piece by piece, the police solved the puzzle, and on August 24th, INTERPOL succeeded in apprehending the fugitive precisely in the city with a view of the Adriatic coast, executing the European arrest warrant issued by the Milan Prosecutor's Office.
Who is Edmond Dodaj?
Edmond Dodaj facilitated the import of cocaine from the Netherlands through his gang operating from the port of Rotterdam, where, according to analysis by the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, Albanian criminals might have even corrupted workers to evade inspections on containers from South America.
Edmond Dodaj has previously worked for the Special Forces in Albania, during the time when Saimir Tahiri was the Minister of Interior. Despite his relatively young age, Dodaj belongs to the "old school" of Albanian gangs, which over time have climbed the ranks, transforming from "unqualified" individuals into privileged intermediaries, both for mafia organizations like the "Ndrangheta" and for South American groups.
The 42-year-old, who had been a fugitive for 10 years, was arrested in the city of Laç with the aim of extradition to Italy, as he had been declared an international fugitive by INTERPOL Rome. An international arrest warrant had been issued against him by the Milan court for the criminal offense of "Criminal Group in Drug Trafficking," as defined by the Italian Penal Code.
Local media are interested in whether Dodaj will ever speak when he is tried in Italy. Will he cooperate to unveil the network of collaborators, rivals to be eliminated, or defenders who, according to Corriere, might be high-ranking officials or politicians?