Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Drugs gang get 45 years after covert police op
AN attempt to flush vast quantities of cocaine down the toilet proved to be futile as police raided a home in Gloucester and busted a nationwide drugs conspiracy.
Surveillance officers were watching as Luciano Giaquinto exchanged cash for drugs with Anesti Koreta, a courier working with a Londonbased Albanian drug ring.
One month into lockdown last spring investigators witnessed Giaquinto leaving his address in Barton Street to meet Koreta in a vehicle which had travelled from London.
They watched Giaquinto handed over cash in exchange for a kilogram of cocaine from Koreta.
Afterwards Giaquinto travelled to his brother, Andrew’s, house in Overbury Road in Gloucester and it was at this moment when officers knew they had to step in and arrest those involved.
Having realised the game was up, the brothers frantically began hiding the drugs, trying to flush them down the toilet.
Officers walked in to find cocaine scattered carelessly around the living room, with a line of cocaine trailing up the stairs to the bathroom.
Meanwhile Koreta was stopped and arrested on his way back to his home address in London. Cash totalling £38,000 hidden inside his car was found.
These are the first of six men, three from Gloucester, who were given a combined sentence of more than 45 years behind bars when they appeared at Bristol Crown Court yesterday for their parts in the drugs conspiracy.
It comes after the serious and organised crime unit in Gloucestershire spent months gathering covert surveillance.
They were able to infiltrate two criminal gangs operating in Gloucester and disrupted a UK-wide Albanian criminal network which was responsible for supplying vast quantities of cocaine into the South West.
Police started investigating the gangs in early 2020.
A month after the arrests of Giaquinto brothers, officers followed Dhmitri Gjini, a man living in London to an address in Tredworth in Glocuester.
Through covert surveillance, officers witnessed a significant exchange of drugs for cash with Uzair Kadodia, 35, from Tredworth.
Three police cars pulled over Gjini who was heading home to Golders Green, North London.
Inside his car was £60,000 in cash hidden in the air vents under the dashboard.
Meanwhile, officers were arresting Kadodia in Tredworth after he had exchanged two kgs of cocaine with Gjini.
Gjini had sent Koreta on numerous jobs around the country in April 2020 to Exeter, Aldershot and Gloucester.
The prosecution was able to present that six kgs of cocaine with a street value of £600,000 had been supplied over the course of five separate dates in April.
Further investigation revealed that Dashnor Pali, 34, of Highfield Road, Tipton, Birmingham, was key to the supply of cocaine to the journeys to Gloucestershire.
He had previously been deported after being sentenced in 2018 to five years imprisonment for cocaine supply.
Pali had returned to the UK prior to the expiry of his sentence and was using a false name to conceal his identity.
Surveillance officers were used to identify two key locations in Stoke on Trent and Birmingham.
Officers located Pali at an address in Birmingham where £10,000 was seized and he was arrested for his part in the conspiracy to supply cocaine.
The investigation was able to show that Luciano Giaquinto and Pali had been friends for a number of months before the supply of cocaine in April 2020.
Another arrest in Stoke-on-Trent revealed that another member of the gang, Mariglent Gjoka, was holding £55,000.
A video was taken from Gjoka’s telephone, which was seized after his arrest, of him showing off about his involvement in criminality and throwing £35,000 in wads of cash onto his bed.
He was sentenced separately at Gloucester Crown Court to a sixmonth custodial sentence.
After seizing phones, investigators were able to uncover that Gjini was using encrypted communication devices over Encrochat services to communicate with other members of the supply chain.
This evidence formed part of the National Crime Agency and Europol investigation, Operation Venetic.
Inspector Matt Phillips, of the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “We will always seek to identify and prosecute those people said to be causing the most significant harm to our communities.
“We are extremely pleased with the court result but our work will not stop there.”
Luciano Giaquinto, 53, of Barton Street, Gloucester, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and was sentenced to seven years and seven months.
Andrew Giaquinto, 58, of Overbury Road, Gloucester, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and was sentenced to seven years and six months.
Uzair Kadodia, 35, of Melbourne Street East, Gloucester, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply and money laundering and was jailed for six years and 10 months.
Dhimitri Gaqo Gjini, 41, of Sandringham Road, Golders Green, London, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and money laundering and was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison.
Anesti Koreta, 42, of Upton Road, Edmonton, London, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and was jailed for five years and 11 months.
Dashnor Pali, 34, of Highfield Road, Tipton, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and was jailed for seven years and four months.