The mafia network of former Cosa Nostra boss Messina Denaro in Albania: From drug trafficking to money laundering…
From the boats that set off for Albania in the early 1980s, according to the testimony of a justice collaborator, to Girolamo “Luca” Bellomo in Tirana in 2014. The Italian files bring Albania to two different moments in the history of people connected to Matteo Messina Denaro’s world. One question remains unanswered: which Albanian businessman met Bellomo, the husband of the Sicilian boss’s niece, in Tirana?
Albania appears in the history of Matteo Messina Denaro’s people much earlier than one might think. The first traces lead to the early 80s, when Giacomo Tamburello and his brother, according to the testimony of the associate of justice Vincenzo Spezia, moved by boat to the Albanian coast to obtain hashish and marijuana. More than thirty years later, another name directly linked to the Messina Denaro family appears in Tirana: Girolamo “Luca” Bellomo, husband of Lorenza Guttadauro, niece of Matteo Messina Denaro.
In both cases, the story is about drugs. In both cases, the starting point in Italy is the same area of western Sicily: Campobello di Mazara, Castelvetrano, Mazara del Vallo and Marsala. And in both cases, the road leads to Albania.
Tamburello, boats and Albania
Giacomo Tamburello’s name returned to the center of Italian investigations in May 2026, when the Guardia di Finanza, under the coordination of the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office, struck a system of companies, properties and financial assets spread across several countries. Investigators are reconstructing the origins of a fortune built up over decades and Tamburello’s relationship with international drug trafficking.
In this investigation, the testimony of Vincenzo Spezia, a former member of the Campobello di Mazara mafia family and now a collaborator of justice, has taken on particular importance. Spezia places the beginning of Tamburello’s activity in drug trafficking in the 1980s and describes a route that passed directly through Albania.
According to him, Giacomo Tamburello and his brother went by boat to Albania to get hashish and marijuana. The loads were then transported to Sicily and distributed in Mazara del Vallo, Marsala and the surrounding areas. Later, after problems with Italian justice, Tamburello moved to Spain, where the drug trafficking would take on other dimensions and where an important part of his economic interests would be built.
Spezia’s testimony also links Tamburello to Matteo Messina Denaro himself. According to the justice associate, the Castelvetrano boss received a share of Tamburello’s drug trafficking profits, estimated at around 10 percent. This is one of the leads that the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office is currently following to understand how the interests of Trapani’s Cosa Nostra were financed and how far the economic system that fueled Messina Denaro’s power extended.
Within this reconstruction, Albania is not just a name on the map. It emerges as a supply point in the early phase of Tamburello’s activity, while transportation was done by sea.
2014: Girolamo Bellomo in Tirana
Three decades later, Albania appears again in an Italian anti-mafia dossier.
In May 2014, Girolamo “Luca” Bellomo was in Tirana with Giuseppe Nicolaci. Bellomo was the husband of Lorenza Guttadauro, daughter of Filippo Guttadauro and Rosalia Messina Denaro, sister of Matteo Messina Denaro. In other words, someone within the family circle of the boss who at that time was still on the run.
Bellomo was one of the main names in the “Eden 2” operation, the investigation that in November 2014 led to the arrest of 16 people and hit part of the structure that, according to the Italian anti-mafia, managed criminal and economic interests in the area of Castelvetrano and Campobello di Mazara.
Tirana also appears clearly in the investigation materials. On May 17, 2014, Bellomo was communicating from the Albanian capital with Gaetano Corrao, while the Italian carabinieri were following the movement of a marijuana shipment towards northern Italy. From the interceptions and surveillance, the ROS reconstructed the group’s contacts and part of the traffic.
According to the materials of “Eden 2” reported in the Italian media, Bellomo had come to Albania for a large supply of marijuana. Investigators were also following his movements in other countries: Spain, the Netherlands and Colombia. The profile that emerges from the file is that of a person who moved in an international network of contacts and operations related to narcotics.
The “Eden 2” trial continued all the way to the Court of Cassation. Bellomo was among those convicted; in the first instance he had received 10 years and 10 months in prison.
But for Albania, the most interesting part of the story begins exactly where the Italian reports stop.
Which Albanian businessman met with Bellomo in Tirana?
Bellomo did not arrive in Tirana as a tourist. The “Eden 2” file places his presence in Albania within an investigation into international drug trafficking and the investigators’ materials link the trip to the supply of marijuana. Such an operation required contacts on the ground, people who knew the market, logistics, transport and how goods could move abroad. The Italian anti-mafia files mention a meeting with a character identified as a businessman close to the government, but without giving more details.
Here the question arises that must be answered by the Albanian side of history: which Albanian businessman met with Bellomo in Tirana?
Who were the contacts he had established in Albania? In what sectors did they operate? Were they only people from the criminal world, or were there also entrepreneurs with legitimate businesses, transport companies, import-export or interests in maritime activities?
Italian reports provide the names of Bellomo and Nicolaci, the date and location in Tirana, as well as the context of drug trafficking.
Fishing track
One of the directions that takes importance from the history of Tamburello is fishing and the marine economy.
Vincenzo Spezia talks about boats that were heading towards Albania to get drugs. On the Italian side we are in Mazara del Vallo and Marsala, two cities where fishing, naval fleets, refrigerated warehouses and the trade of seafood have a great economic weight. In the same territory, Cosa Nostra has historically had interests in businesses related to fish.
One of the examples that emerges in the Italian judicial documentation is the Stella d’Oriente company, active in the trade of fish products and linked in the acts of the anti-mafia processes to figures from the Mazara del Vallo mafia family. Its structure featured people close to Mariano Agate, one of the historical bosses of the area and an ally of the Corleonesi.
This economic background gives new meaning to the question of Tamburello’s boats. What means did he use to come to Albania? Who did they belong to? From which Sicilian port did they depart and to which Albanian port did they arrive? Who took care of the supply, storage, and return of the cargo?
The question naturally extends to 2014. If Bellomo was in Tirana for a marijuana supply, did he have contacts with people who controlled shipping, import-export companies, food trade or fishing businesses? Were there Albanian-Italian partnerships in the seafood sector at that time with links to Marsala, Mazara del Vallo or the province of Trapani?
This is a trail that can be followed through commercial documents, company history, Italian partners in Albania, fishing licenses, and vessels that have operated between the two coasts.
From the Albania of Tamburello to the Tirana of Bellomo
In the early 1980s, according to Vincenzo Spezia, Giacomo Tamburello and his brother traveled by boat to Albania, obtained hashish and marijuana, and transported it to the territory of Mazara del Vallo and Marsala.
In May 2014, Girolamo “Luca” Bellomo was in Tirana with Giuseppe Nicolaci, while the Italian anti-mafia was pursuing a marijuana trafficking ring. Bellomo was the husband of Matteo Messina Denaro’s niece and one of the people who would later be convicted in the “Eden 2” trial.
Thirty years apart, two names from the criminal world of western Sicily arrive in the same place.
From Campobello di Mazara and Castelvetrano to Marsala and Mazara del Vallo, the territory is where the Messina Denaro mafia family built its power for decades. On the other side of the sea is Albania.
Now the investigation must follow the people who stood on the Albanian side of this road. The names of the Italians are there. The dates too. Tirana also comes up in the wiretaps.
The question is: which Albanian businessman met with Girolamo “Luca” Bellomo in Tirana and what interests connected them?
The answer may be the point from where the Albanian history of this file just begins. /Pamphlet