DETROIT – A federal grand jury returned an indictment against 43-year-old Ylli Didani.
The feds allege that Didani is a drug kingpin running a cocaine trafficking organization that spans the globe. Court records show Didani was conspiring with Grosse Pointe CEO Marty Tibbitts to construct a cocaine submarine -- a large drone that would affix itself with magnets to the bottom of container ships and be controlled remotely via a modem and GPS antenna.
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When the ship would arrive at its destination, the cocaine sub would disengage and wait to be picked up by a fishing boat controlled by Didani’s organization.
Tibbitts died in a plane crash in 2018.
The feds intercepted 3,400 kilograms of cocaine, which they said is from Didani’s organization from 2019 to 2020. They place the value at $100 million.
“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,” said acting U.S. Attorney Saima Mohsin.