An Albanian drug trafficking gang has been detained after being caught with over 800 kilos of cocaine off the coast of Senegal. 

Seven members of the gang were arrested aboard a Gambian fishing boat by the Senegalese navy supported by the US DEA, Spanish police and the French Air Force. 

The suspects are believed to be linked to a Spain-based Albanian drug cartel and the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, a notorious Italian criminal organisation known for its involvement in drug trafficking.   

The operation is the result of a seven-month-long investigation, led by Spanish police, into the drug trafficking cartel with access to a large maritime infrastructure in Brazil. 

From there, vessels loaded with large shipments of cocaine sailed to the gang’s base in the Gulf of Guinea.

After monitoring the movement of the group’s ships, police investigators determined that one was carrying a large amount of cocaine.

The Gambia-registered fishing boat had received the drugs from a larger ship in the open waters. 

This is a common method narco groups use: large ships carry the drugs across the ocean and then transfer the cargo to smaller vessels that bring it on shore, according to the police investigators.

The arrests and seizure of the cocaine represent a major blow to the drug trafficking operations of the Albanian group and its connections to other criminal groups, the investigators added.