How police caught Dorset's first Albanian organised crime group

Dorset Police’s Op Map came to its ultimate conclusion on Friday with six defendants jailed for a total of almost 40 years.

The result in court was the culmination of 18 months of work as an Albanian organised crime group operating in the county was brought to justice for the first time ever.

Ardit Zani, aged 29 and of Bournemouth, Andrew Doyle, aged 31 and of Christchurch, Lawand Najim, aged 26 and of Bournemouth, and Marjus Nona, aged 23 and of Birmingham, all pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A drugs.

Agron Bendaj, aged 54 and of Luton in Bedfordshire, and Endri Kostreni, aged 29 and of Bournemouth, were found guilty of the same offence following separate trials last year. Kostreni was also found guilty of being concerned in the supply of a class B drug.

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Police surveillance of Marjus Nona, left, in a green t-shirt, Ardit Zani standing up in red and blue gilet, and Andrew Doyle, right. Picture: Dorset Police

Temporary Detective Chief Inspector Jamie Halford, Dorset Police’s senior investigative officer in the case, told the Daily Echo the operation was “right up there” with the biggest in the force’s history.

Zani was presented by the prosecution as the head of the crime group, at the top of the tree locally in respect of the dealing of several kilograms of cocaine. Police said Najim was his right-hand man.

“We used to follow them fairly regularly together,” said DCI Halford.

“They would drive almost every day together and they would do frequent trips to north London where their upstream emanated from.”

Kostreni and Nona were “trusted” sub-dealers, who took part in the runs to London, police said.

Covert images of Andrew Doyle, Marjus Nona, Lawand Najim and Ardit Zani. Picture: Dorset Police

DCI Halford said it is known to police that western Balkan crime groups tend to use people they know for trust reasons. The police investigation started in earnest in June 2020 and came to a head with a strike day of action in October.

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Bendaj was arrested in Highcliffe and police found around £40,000 in cash which they saw used in an exchange for a kilogram block of cocaine.

Officers found a bag containing around £40,000 in a car. Picture: Dorset Police

Doyle, a local resident buying cocaine in bulk, was arrested nearby along with Najim who attempted to make off from a vehicle. Searches of the area lead to Zani and Bendaj being detained.

Further warrants were carried out at multiple Bournemouth addresses with cash and a substantial amount of cocaine seized.

DCI Halford said it had taken a partnership approach from across the force to disrupt the criminals.

“It has been a significant number of people across the board, whether that is myself as the senior investigating officer, or backroom staff like the analysis and people who are looking at communications data and surveillance travel,” the detective said.

“It also involves our operations teams when we did the strike as well. On that day we had to use a number of officers from uniform and specialist uniformed assets.”

Cash seized by police during the strike day in October 2020. Picture: Dorset Police

He described the covert efforts as “almost painstaking”, with the close to daily observations of trips to the capital and criminal meetings in cafes.

The detective said almost as much effort had to go in from police after the defendants were charged as the force had to in the summer 2020 investigations.

Discussing the impact of breaking up the drug operation, DCI Halford said: “We know from National Crime Agency publications that Albanians are trying to get a foothold in the UK and clearly we have proven that we have had one down in Bournemouth. It is one of our policing plan priorities to disrupt and tackle serious and organised crime.

“For me this is all about, yes, we have taken them out and dismantled them and they are going to go to prison, but it is also about the message that sends longer term around potential other organised crime groups that might try to come and get a foothold down in Dorset.

“We will relentlessly pursue them as we did on this operation.”

While criminals who buy the blocks of cocaine might not see the harm caused, DCI Halford said at street level it had a “massive” impact on those taking the drug and the crime they might inflict on others to continue to feed their habit.

He added: “We are alive to that and that is why we want to disrupt that high end of organised crime groups – to take it out at source almost and higher up the chain.”

The members of the organised crime group who were jailed on Friday, February 11

Zani was sentenced to eight years in prison, Bendaj received a seven-year jail term and Najim was jailed for six years. Kostreni received a sentence of 10 years, Doyle was jailed for five years and five months and Nona was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.