The six people arrested as part of the operation coded "Flame at Sea" have been placed under the security measure of 'prison arrest', among them a former police officer, Arlind Ismailukaj, 47 years old, resident in Tirana.

Names of the arrested:

Arlind Ismailukaj, 47 years old, resident of Tirana;

Armando Mema, 37 years old, resident in Tirana; 

Nerim Çela, 40 years old, resident of Fushë Kuqe, Laç; 

Besnik Brokeri, 51 years old, resident of Vlora; 

Kyrylo Ponomarenko, 39 years old, resident of Ukraine; 

Kostiantyn Biellon, 44, resident of Ukraine.

-The Operation

6 traffickers, among them 4 Albanians and 2 Ukrainians, have fallen into the hands of the Police from an international anti-drug operation, carried out two nights ago in the district of Lezha, in the open sea (Adriatic), about 18 miles from the Patok Lagoon. The police hit the drug traffickers, who were exchanging the narcotic substance, cocaine with cannabis, in the middle of the Adriatic Sea and arrested citizens Arlind Ismailukaj, 47 years old, resident of Tirana, former police chief; Nerim Çela, 40 years old, resident of Fushë-Kuqe, grandson of Gëzim Çela, known as the 'cocaine baron', who was declared an international wanted man in 2014, after special forces found in his villa 18 kilograms of cocaine, 150 kilograms cannabis and a narcotics laboratory. In the same action in Kosovo, 50 kilograms of heroin and cocaine were seized, which were suspected to have been packed in Fushë-Kuqe. 

Besnik Brokeri, 51 years old, a resident of Vlora, and Armando Mema, 37 years old, a resident of Tirana, were also taken into custody. Two citizens from Ukraine, Kyrylo Ponomarenko, 39 years old, and Kostiantyn Biellon, 44 years old, were also arrested. The two Ukrainians, who were traveling on the ship with drugs, had left from Montenegro. They set fire to the sailboat and tried to escape in a lifeboat, but were arrested. In the sea, the police found 23 kg of cannabis near the place where the burnt sailboat sank.