Drugs on buses between Albania and Puglia, millionaire trafficking unmasked also thanks to the repentant Milella

They left loaded with drugs and returned full of money. The buses between Puglia and Albania were not just means of transporting passengers, but real channels of exchange between international drug traffickers. This was discovered by investigators from the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate of Bari , who with the “ Ura ” operation dismantled a criminal structure of European dimensions: 52 people arrested , trafficking estimated at over 255 kilos of pure drugs and 4.5 million euros moved in cash. The investigation – carried out between 2021 and 2022 with the support of Interpol , Albanian Spak and Eurojust – shed light on an organized and protected system, based in the Japigia district of Bari and in the port city of Durazzo .

As reported by La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno , the statements of Domenico Milella , former right-hand man of the boss Eugenio Palermiti , who became a collaborator of justice in 2020 and is now out of the protection program, were crucial to starting the investigation. His name was also mentioned in some wiretaps between Albanian traffickers who, after his collaboration, feared the scope of his revelations: "Now that he has become a repentant, who knows how many people he will ruin," they said on the phone.

“With encrypted phones they sent us photos and cocaine emblems”

Milella revealed the two main supply channels for drug trafficking: Holland and Albania . The cocaine and heroin arrived in Mola di Bari , initially hidden in a mechanic's workshop or in a villa on the San Giorgio seafront. "The first thing they did was give us an encrypted phone with personal codes," he said. "They sent us photos, prices, and emblems printed on the drugs. You chose, you said how many packages you needed. The drivers, Polish, changed every time and didn't speak Italian. Then the Albanian arrived with the delivery. I opened, checked and paid."

The repentant also indicated the places where the drugs were hidden, such as the “ cupa ” in Mola, and explained that the cutting took place in Bari : from three kilos of heroin, up to 13 kilos could be obtained thanks to artisanal processing. “It also arrived on ferries from Albania,” he added. One of Milella’s interlocutors for the purchases was, according to the prosecution, Massimiliano Fiore , one of the 23 Apulians who ended up in prison.

An international network with local branches

The drugs, once cut, were sold wholesale in the provinces of Bari, Brindisi and Lecce . The money collected, even in sums exceeding half a million euros , was then transported to Albania with the same network of buses, thanks to the complicity of trusted drivers and couriers . The network also had direct contacts with South American cartels for cocaine and with Turkish channels for heroin.

The investigations – conducted with wiretaps, observations, shadowing and analysis of communications on encrypted platforms such as SkyECC – have highlighted the sophisticated use of technology by criminal organizations. But not only that: local organizations , in particular the Bari groups linked to the Parisi-Palermiti clan , who granted their “approval” to the operations in exchange for earnings, also ensured the security of operations on the territory.

Arrests in Italy and Albania, police and lawyers also involved

The investigation concluded with the issuing of two precautionary orders, one in Italy and one in Albania. Among others, Andrea Nicola Buonsante , Cesare Giliberti , Giovanni Montedoro , Francesco Patisso , Giovanni Signorile , Angelo Zanardelli , Massimiliano Fiore , Luisa Mazzuti and Annalisa Ronghi ended up in prison. Francesca Caputi , nicknamed “the grandmother”, was placed under house arrest, while Serafina Palazzo , known as “the aunt”, and Domenico De Tullio were ordered to sign in.

In Albania, a police commander , an agent , a lawyer and several members of a criminal family from Durres , linked to the logistics of the trafficking, were also arrested.

“It was a very complex investigation,” said prosecutor Ettore Cardinali , “and the absolute novelty was the analysis of encrypted chats, which the criminals believed to be inviolable.” Deputy prosecutor Francesco Giannella emphasized how the DDA’s work was made possible thanks to high-level international cooperation.

The result is a very heavy blow to a network that for years has profited from drugs and death, taking advantage of the most common routes to move undercover. And that today, thanks also to the words of a former man of the clans, has lost much of its operational structure.

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