A wealthy Albanian with a string of British businesses and a glamorous politician mother-in-law has been arrested alongside his brother over claims they took part in a £335million cocaine smuggling plot.
Klevis Hoxhosmani, 37, and his 42-year-old sibling, Artur, were arrested by Albania’s organised crime squad on Saturday for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to traffic industrial quantities of the drug from Latin America to the UK and EU.
Hoxhosmani is in a relationship with Kejda Ajazi – daughter of Majlinda Bregu, 51, Albania’s former minister for European integration, who stepped down as an MP in 2017 and now works for an organisation called the Regional Cooperation Council.
The young couple are well known in Albania for flaunting their luxurious lifestyle on social media, including frequent jaunts to London, Dubai, and Monaco – where they were recently filmed decked out in designer gear while stepping out of a supercar.
This will also be of interest to officers from Albania’s Special Structure against Corruption and Organised Crime (SPAK), which is overseeing the investigation that led to his arrest.
Albanian prosecutors claim Hoxhosmani and his brother were part of a large international organised crime group involving at least nine other people.
The gang are accused of smuggling drugs from Colombia or Ecuador before transporting them by sea and land to Britain.
Prosecutors claim they were behind a 250kg shipment of cocaine that was seized in France in April 2020 – allegedly on its way to the UK.
Texts exchanged on an encrypted platform called Sky/ECC allegedly reveal members of the gang reacting with horror when they realised the drugs had been seized.
Hoxhosmani has close ties to Britain, with Companies House linking him to three businesses based in Bournemouth.
He was listed as a director of Crystal Hand Car Wash, which was set up in 2013 and dissolved in 2015. He is also the former director of Barrack Road Tyres, a tyre shop in Christchurch that is now under new ownership.
Hoxhosmani remains the director of Opa Coffee Limited, which is registered to an empty shop next to Central Gardens, a park in Bournemouth town centre.
He has a criminal record in the UK, and pleaded guilty in 2014 to assaulting a woman in nearby Ferndown. He was handed a community order and told to pay £60 compensation.
His brother, Artur, is the former owner of another local car wash, Ferndown Hand Car Wash, where two men – an Afghan and an Iraqi – were recently arrested for working in breach of bail conditions.
According to prosecutors, the drug gang sourced cocaine from Colombia or Ecuador.
This was allegedly transported in sea containers to major ports in Europe, such as Antwerp in Belgium and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It then headed by land to France and through the Channel Tunnel to the UK, it is claimed.
Prosecutors said drugs were hidden in wooden pallets, boxes of bananas and bags of cocoa beans, while others were contained in shipments of timber.
The group allegedly hid behind pseudonyms and made payments using the Hawala system – an informal method of money transfer that works through trusted brokers.
Prosecutors Altin Dumani and Adnand Xholi said: ‘The organisational structure of this criminal group, with links to several continents and with 16 members identified so far, proves the high level of sophistication of Albanian criminal groups, their capabilities and their reach into international criminal markets.’
They described the gang as ‘hierarchical’, with its leaders not only ordering and financing drug shipments, but also overseeing their journey across Europe, before associates in the destination countries, including the UK, distributed them to local dealers.
Gang members were based in the UK, various EU countries, Dubai, and the UAE, and prosecutors claim they aided by ‘customs officers and port personnel’.
One of the alleged gang members, Erion Alibej, is now cooperating with prosecutors.
In court, he claimed an associate was beaten up in London after 50kg of cocaine went missing.
SPAK officers have seized a luxury yacht and a fleet of cars including a Mercedes Benz AMG G63, a Volkswagen Golf 7, and a Volkswagen Sharan.
They have also taken possession of two high-end watches, 16 mobile phones, 19 bank cards and three pistols with magazines and cartridges.
The men arrested on Saturday alongside the Hoxhosmani brothers were named as Plarent Dervishi and Erion Alibej.
They appeared in court a day later, with Judge Erion Bani granting the prosecution’s request to keep them in prison before a trial.
Two other men, Elidon Skëndaj and Ilir Lloshi, are still wanted by police.
Albanian prosecutors said their investigation had been aided by police in the UK and EU.
‘This successful investigation led by SPAK is a direct result of close inter-institutional and international cooperation, in particular with EUROPOL, EUROJUST, EU Member State agencies, as well as partner law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom, who provided support through in-depth data analysis and the implementation of effective international police coordination,’ they said.
‘The value of the material uncovered through the analysis of the decrypted communication data by Sky/ECC has been essential to complement the evidence collected during the investigation and remains valuable in achieving the appropriate investigative results.
‘This information has been key in identifying serious criminal offences, suspects, and determining their role in this structured criminal group.’