Swiss detectives follow trail of cocaine seized at Nespresso factory

Around 500kg of cocaine was discovered at the Nespresso plant in Romont, canton Fribourg, on May 2, 2022. fr.ch

Investigations into the impressive haul of cocaine seized at the Nespresso plant in the Swiss town of Romont in 2022 have drawn a blank in Fribourg. But in Basel progress is being made.

After thorough investigation the public prosecutor of Basel Country has identified individuals suspected of trying to collect the shipment. By order of the Swiss authorities, two Albanians living in Lombardy, Italy, have been arrested; one has already been extradited.

The discovery of 500kg of cocaine at the Nespresso plant in Romont, canton Fribourg, on May 2, 2022, shocked the whole of Switzerland. This huge shipment of pure cocaine was hidden inside a container of coffee sent from Brazil through Antwerp, Belgium. But who was the intended recipient?

In Fribourg, the public prosecutor’s enquiries led nowhere, and in September 2022 it was announced that the investigation would go no further. It had been established that the cocaine “wasn’t meant for Nespresso”. The cargo “most likely” should have been unloaded by the traffickers somewhere between Antwerp and Romont. But “for reasons unknown, this had not happened”.

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“The identification of those involved in transporting the cocaine has remained fruitless to date,” the Fribourg investigators admitted sheepishly.

A closed case? Certainly not. At the same time, in canton Basel Country, local investigators were already following a promising line of enquiry that led straight to Italy and two Albanians.

Visits in the night

Swissterminal AG, located in Frenkendorf, a small town in the greater Basel area, runs one of the six container terminals in the Swiss logistics hub. The hunt for the suspected organisers of the cocaine shipment started here, two days before the cargo was even discovered at the Fribourg plant.

At 1am on April 30, 2022, workers at Swissterminal notice two individuals wandering around the containers stacked up in the grounds. The police are called. One man escapes over the railway tracks, the other is cornered. He is identified as E.H.*, an Albanian living in Italy. He claims he’s travelling through Switzerland and took a shortcut while looking for a taxi. The Basel police are not convinced.

Some months earlier, in the night of September 2-3, 2021, 40kg of 95% pure cocaine had been discovered inside a container in the same location. It had already been forced open, and traces of white powder mixed with coffee led the way to a dirt track.

Coffee containers from South America had arrived in the logistics centre just two days earlier, on April 28, 2022. The officers immediately make the connection: the night-time visit by the two individuals could be linked to drug trafficking. Containers are searched, but nothing is found. Without evidence of a crime, E.H. is released.

The cocaine transited via the Belgian port of Anvers, the drug’s main entry point into Europe. Keystone / Johanna Geron / Pool

A matter of timing

Still, the Basel investigators don’t give up. They go through Swissterminal’s CCTV footage and see four individuals in the terminal grounds several times between April 28 and May 1, 2022. Some of them stroll around among the containers, others seem to be look-outs. Could these night visits be connected with the discovery of 500kg of cocaine at Nespresso on May 2?

The Basel sleuths then focus on the route followed by the container of interest, identified by its serial number MSKU3979536. It arrived at the Swissterminal warehouse by train from Antwerp on April 28 at 2.44 pm. The following day it was loaded onto a goods train to be transported to the Nestlé plant.

For the Basel Country public prosecutor, it seems clear that E.H. – already linked by the Albanian media to criminal offences – and his henchmen, fans of nocturnal strolls in Frenkendorf, were looking for that container. They didn’t succeed in finding it because shortly after its arrival the precious cargo had been sent on to Romont.

Arrests in Italy

The Basel investigators step up their efforts. They note similarities with the seizure of 40kg of cocaine in September 2021. Both consignments could belong to the same criminal gang. More CCTV footage is examined to identify E.H.’s associates.

A suspicious vehicle is spotted: a Peugeot, registered in canton Appenzell Inner Rhodes, shows up repeatedly in the logistics area on the relevant days. The car was rented by M.M.*, an Albanian living in Italy, from April 26-30, 2022. This individual is seen on camera, inside the car with E.H.

For Basel prosecutor Boris Sokoloff that is enough evidence. He requests Italy’s collaboration.

E.H. is arrested in the province of Brescia and tries unsuccessfully to appeal his extradition to Switzerland. He already has a criminal conviction for intimidation in Tirana, dating from 2017. The Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) tells Gotham City that the suspect has indeed been handed over to the police in Basel.

The extradition of M.M., who has Italian citizenship, is more complicated. He is finally arrested on March 20, 2023, at his home in Busto Arsizio not far from Milan. In September 2022 the Italian authorities had asked Switzerland for more information. The Basel Country public prosecutor’s office explained how M.M. had been spotted in the logistics area shortly before the cocaine shipment was discovered.

This convinced the Milan Court of Appeal to approve the request to extradite M.M. and seize his mobile phones and computer.

Our article is based on elements contained in this final judgement, which we have been able to examine. The FOJ stresses that M.M. has not yet been extradited to Switzerland.

Questioned by Gotham City, the Basel Country public prosecutor’s office explains that three people are being held in connection with the inquiry into the “discovery of 500kg of cocaine in a coffee-processing business in French-speaking Switzerland”.

* The full names are known to the editorial staff

Adapted from French by Johannes Waardenburg

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