Ervin Mata, a controversial construction businessman accused by SPAK of involvement in several drug trafficking episodes from Latin America to Europe and Albania, was arrested four days ago on the island of Ilhabela in Brazil.
He had been wanted for years by Albanian justice and had been able to escape arrest, having lived between Latin America, Spain and Brazil, while in Tirana, SPAK was uncovering the criminal episodes in which he was involved, from drug trafficking to the creation of a criminal organization.
"Albanian tycoon Ervin Mata was arrested in Ilhabela, on the coast of São Paulo, last Saturday night (25), by the Federal Police and the local Military Police," CNN Brazil reported, before the news reached Albania.
The businessman, known in Tirana until a few years ago only for his involvement in the construction of residential and business towers in the capital, until he clashed with Ervis Martinaj in what was called the "Blloku massacre", had chosen to live in Ilhabela, newsbomb.al reports.
The island off the coast of Brazil is known as the birthplace of the local mafia and where Tommaso Buscheta, one of the greatest leaders of the Sicilian mafia , also went to live in the 1970s .
At that time, the island was a peaceful and quiet tourist spot and Buscheta created the “Ilha Bela line”.
He brought drugs ( cocaine and heroin ) in bulk from the port of Marseille, France, to take to the United States and Canada.
Tommaso Buscheta lived unnoticed on the island. Most people who knew him were unaware of his past and his role in the mafia, writes newsbomb .
Tommaso, who used the name Tomas Roberto Felice, was known as “Toninho” or “Toni,” an Italian who traveled around the island by motorbike and used a seaside bar and restaurant as his business office.
He ran cocaine and heroin smuggling operations towards the United States, using ships that docked in the port of São Sebastião and also planes that landed at night at the small airport with a dirt runway that existed on the island.
There, four days ago, controversial Albanian businessman Ervin Mata was also arrested.
It is not known whether he had gone there to follow in the footsteps of the Italian mafioso who became the mafia's first repentant, or whether he had chosen the tourist island for the quiet and luxurious life.