He arrived handcuffed and heavily escorted to the famous rear ramp of the Courts of Palma.

Seeing the cloud of journalists awaiting his arrival,

he smiled and snorted slightly

.

He had just landed in Mallorca in a maximum security police transfer from Croatia with a stopover in Zurich.

Hours later, he was sent to the Palma prison, where he will be held in a cell.

A very different place from his large Majorcan mansion, his habitual residence.

Bashkim Osmani

was imprisoned last night on a preventive basis after refusing to testify when questioned by the Prosecutor's Office.

He had been arrested in Croatia, where he was when a few days ago the Civil Guard and the National Police blew up a major operation against an alleged criminal organization of Albanian origin and transnational reach.

The great raid saw an unprecedented deployment in Mallorca.

With agents from the

FBI

, the National Crime Agency and Europol following the hit from the ground.

And with a place in the center of the board: the mansion that Osmani owns in Camp de Mar, a privileged place on the eastern coast of the island, a refuge for tycoons and great international fortunes.

Osmani, 56, has been identified by the investigation as the leader of an alleged international network dedicated to large-scale cocaine trafficking and money laundering derived from those activities under investigation.

The Civil Guard went so far as to indicate that the organization

has "flooded" Europe with cocaine

for years.

The defendant recently denied the accusations through one of his lawyers, in statements collected by Diario de Mallorca.

He pleaded not guilty, did not refuse to be extradited to Spain after his arrest in Croatia, and said through that lawyer that the accusations he faces are "absolutely unfounded."

Sources of his defense insisted on the same line yesterday.

Yesterday, already in the Court instructing the case in Mallorca, Osmani refused to answer the questions of the Prosecutor's Office and the magistrate.

He was silent.

The judge ordered his admission to prison preventively given the seriousness of the facts of which he is accused and alleging flight risk in view of the strong purchasing power of the organization.

The investigation values ​​its investments in Mallorca alone at more than

35 million euros

, including Italian hotels and restaurants, two of them under the Ritzi brand, located in one of the most elite marinas on the island, Puerto Portals.

As for the illegal business, the investigators put it at hundreds of millions of euros.

The Court charged him with at least the crimes of money laundering and belonging to a criminal organization.

The investigation is kept secret but sources close to the investigation suggest that it is one of the most ambitious operations against organized crime carried out in Europe in recent years.

Baptized as 'Operation Casino-Fantauxia', the spectacular police raid against money laundering took place on February 16 and eight people were arrested in Mallorca.

Agents of the Civil Guard and the National Police broke into 18 businesses and homes through which the investigation indicates that money from transnational organized crime activities has been laundered.

Mainly from cocaine trafficking between South America and Europe, orchestrated by a criminal organization of Albanian origin and strong connections with the mafia clans of the German city of Hamburg.

Mainly, the alleged money obtained through these drug trafficking networks and also prostitution in various European countries is tracked, with Belgium as another of the main poles.

Records in Mallorca were developed in businesses and private homes.

Among them, two well-known Italian restaurants, one of them, the Ritzi restaurant, in the exclusive port of Portals, a well-known place frequented by celebrities, and another located in the heart of Palma, in the vicinity of the seat of the presidency of the Balearic government. .

A yacht, a boutique hotel in the center of the Balearic capital and some private villas were also intervened, including the mansion of Osmani, the alleged ringleader of the network, a citizen of Albanian origin who lived in Germany before establishing his residence in Mallorca .

The investigation originated four years ago as a result of a major operation against cocaine trafficking with its epicenter in Barcelona that put the agents on the track.

In that coup, a member of the leadership of the criminal group was arrested.

In 2020, another coup in Belgium reinforced that line of investigation, after a cache of two and a half tons of chemicals to treat and cut cocaine was found.

Research sources point out that the organization "flooded Europe with cocaine."

They investigated money movements and tracked down suspected figureheads and front men set up to introduce organized crime money into the legal circuit.

In Mallorca, the organization had hatched a network of companies and investments to launder funds.

It is estimated that investments under suspicion in the Balearic Islands exceed 35 million euros, although the investigation is still being carried out.

The investigations point to an alleged network that would have been operating for two decades in Mallorca, moving money through interposed businesses and with connections in Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Eastern European countries.

With plans to invest in the gaming sector and interests in casinos, which has given rise to the name chosen for the police operation.

According to reports, to shield their communications, the leaders of the gang encrypted their messages with sophisticated computer equipment.

They traveled frequently to Colombia, Mexico and Dubai.

86 WORKS OF ART AND A YACHT

The device developed in Palma and in the town of Calviá was spectacular.

Dozens of agents were mobilized and the National Police also used trained dogs to detect hidden money.

In addition, it was a global operation, since it was coordinated with similar operations in other countries involved and had a large representation on the Balearic island of other police forces dedicated to the fight against international money laundering.

The US FBI and DEA (the drug enforcement agency) have sent agents to work on the ground.

In total, 45 arrests and more than 50 searches were carried out in all the countries in which the raid was deployed.

Police investigators believe that it is the money launderer of one of the most important drug trafficking organizations in Europe, capable of controlling the entire cocaine supply chain.

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