How Albanian gangsters use frogmen to hide cocaine on Europe-bound ships – without their crews ever knowing

As this new graphic shows, Albanian smugglers gangs are using frogmen to retrieve cocaine hidden on the bottom of cargo ships.

Smugglers have long been known to hide drug packages on container ships before using smaller boats to bring them to shore.

The use of submarine divers, which requires specialized training, is another sign that gangs are honing their techniques to make them even harder to detect.

Six Albanians, five men and one woman, were arrested in the small Norwegian port of Husnes in 2023 after going there to meet a cargo ship arriving from Brazil.

When the Nordloire arrived, one of the group dove below to retrieve more than 150 kg stored in the water intake vent below the ship’s waterline.

Gangs are increasingly turning to so-called ‘parasite’ smuggling because it eliminates the need to bribe ship crews to turn a blind eye.

Instead, a team in South America is removing the grating on the ship’s ‘sea chest’ (a recessed compartment into which water is pumped for cooling) before placing a waterproof package inside.

Equipped with Apple AirTags for tracking, the pack can then be lifted by divers in Europe who can swim from more than a kilometer away.

Italian anti-narcotics police chief Leonardo Landi, who helped capture the divers in 2023, said the crew would often have no idea the ship was being used to transport drugs.

He told The Times: ‘As the ship waits to enter a European port, a team of divers return at night using two to four electric sleds that allow them to swim from up to a kilometer away.

‘It’s not easy, the ship’s propellers may be turning to keep the ship steady, which is why they get paid up to €300,000 to remove the drugs.’

Mr Landi said gangs using this method were becoming increasingly Albanian, reflecting a wider takeover of Europe’s cocaine trade by gangs from the country.

Police credit the Albanian mafia’s takeover of Europe’s cocaine market with a decision taken decades ago to establish direct links with South American cartels.

By cutting out the middlemen, they can obtain larger quantities of medicine more cheaply.

While gaining a reputation for professionalism and reliability, the Albanians are also said to have established close ties with the Italian ‘Ndrangheta, which dominates the cocaine market in mainland Europe.

Last year, a leaked legal document from the Home Office described Albanian criminal gangs as an ‘acute threat’ to the UK and ‘highly prevalent serious and organized crime’ in Britain, including numerous murders.

Huge stash of cocaine in the back of a car. Drugs were stored in waterproof packages

The use of frogmen is far from the first time gangs have used sophisticated methods to transport drugs underwater.

Submarines called ‘narco-submarines’ have been used to smuggle drugs from South America to the US for decades and have recently also appeared in Europe.

The first submarine linked to drug trafficking in Europe was found off the coast of Spain in 2006.

In 2019, police stopped a 25-meter ship off the coast of Galicia and found three people on board.

Amazingly, it is believed to have traveled 4,778 nautical miles across the Atlantic from Colombia.

Peter Walsh, author of Drug War: The Hidden History, said it was ‘possible’ that such ships, often unnamed, were also operating in UK waters.

“I haven’t seen evidence of this yet, but it’s plausible,” he previously told the Mail.

‘When gangs use boats to collect drugs, there is always a risk of those on board being caught. Then not only can you lose your drugs, but they can also attack you.

‘This means there will be a double advantage in using unmanned drones for this type of smuggling.’