arrest in Dubai after escape –

Dorian Petoku, an Albanian drug lord convicted on appeal in Rome for international drug trafficking and who escaped from a rehabilitation center in recent months, has been arrested in Dubai. The operation was launched on behalf of the Capitoline Anti-Mafia District Directorate, with coordination and information exchange between the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza in Rome, the II Department of the General Command of the Guardia di Finanza, the Service for International Police Cooperation of the Ministry of the Interior and the Dubai Police. Petoku, a drug lord and leading figure in the Roman Albanian criminal organization included in the list of “dangerous fugitives”, had taken refuge in Dubai after escaping, in December 2023, from a rehabilitation center where he had been transferred despite the contrary opinions of the Rome prosecutor’s office.

Petoku was sentenced to 12 years in prison in July 2022 with a summary trial by the preliminary hearing judge of Rome, reduced to 10 on appeal, as part of the ‘Grande Raccordo criminale’ trial on the drug trafficking organization led first by Fabrizio Piscitelli, alias ‘Diabolik’, killed on August 7, 2019 with a shot to the head, and then by his former right-hand man Fabrizio Fabietti. The operation is the result of international cooperation promoted by the Gico specialists of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Rome, with the support of the Officer of the Expert Security Corps at the Italian Embassy in the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi), under the coordination of the Capitoline DDA.

As part of the cooperation, detailed information on the location of the drug trafficker was shared with their Emirati counterparts, thus facilitating the tracking down of the drug trafficker operated directly by the Dubai Police (Most Wanted Person Department Dubai Police). Despite his escape abroad, the Guardia di Finanza, “in the context of the multiple investigations ordered by the DDA of Rome, has acquired various elements of knowledge on the movements and location of the fugitive, and has held specific and effective discussions with the competent collateral bodies”. At the end of the extradition process, Petoku will be accompanied to Italy to serve his sentence.