DETROIT – An accused cocaine kingpin who feds believe was planning underwater drone drug shipments in collaboration with a Michigan CEO will face trial in federal court.
A federal grand jury decided this week that the case against former Michigan resident Ylli Didani, 43, can go to trial. Didani is charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
It is alleged that Didani was the leader of an international drug trafficking organization with ties to the United States, Mexico, South America and Europe. The criminal complaint includes details of a scheme to use an underwater drone to smuggle cocaine to Europe, and WDIV Detroit has identified a Michigan CEO who was allegedly helping to manufacture the drone. The complaint also says law enforcement has seized more than $100 million-worth of cocaine from Didani’s organization.
“This is a very significant and important prosecution of a large scale, well-organized drug trafficking organization involved in the distribution of thousands of kilograms of cocaine worth tens of millions of dollars, across multiple continents,” Acting United States Attorney Saima S. Mohsin said in a statement.
Didani and unindicted co-conspirators allegedly planned and financed the distribution of cocaine from several locations, including Michigan.
The complaint alleges that, in 2017, an unindicted co-conspirator – who WDIV Detroit has identified as Grosse Pointe CEO Marty Tibbitts who died in a plane crash in 2018 – was overseeing the design of an underwater drone that would transport large amounts of cocaine to Europe by attaching to the bottoms of commercial containerships. The drone was to be equipped with an underwater modem and GPS. It would be remotely released from the ship and then picked up by a fishing boat controlled by Didani’s organization.
In transactions during June 2016 and December 2017, Didani allegedly received at least $550,000 from co-conspirators for the purpose of purchasing bulk cocaine. He and unindicted co-conspirators allegedly used private aircraft and commercial containerships to obtain and distribute cocaine throughout Europe.
The criminal complaint further alleges that Didani arranged the distribution of several shipments of cocaine from South America to Europe, where the cocaine was seized by law enforcement. In 2019 and 2020, law enforcement seized over 3400 kilograms of cocaine allegedly from Didani’s organization. The seized cocaine has a street value of over $100 million.
Didani was arrested on March 31 in Charlotte, N.C. The criminal complaint against him was unsealed on April 1. Didani was indicted on Wednesday, April 21, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. attorneys Mark Bilkovic, Timothy McDonald and Michael El-Zein.
The case is the culmination of collaboration between the Drug Enforcement Administration, Detroit Division; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations; and the Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Troy, Novi, Dearborn Heights and Northfield Township police departments.
READ MORE:
Michigan attorney accused of grabbing woman’s breast at restaurant to face lawsuit
Woman to be charged for alleged false claims of sexual assault, kidnapping
Body camera video shows Grand Rapids police officer punching man after traffic stop
Unprecedented housing market leaves Realtors stunned: ‘Never seen anything like this’