DETROIT – An Albanian national will spend decades in federal prison after being convicted in a sprawling international cocaine trafficking and money laundering operation operating out of Metro Detroit.
After a 12-week trial, Ylli Didani was convicted by a federal jury on May 16, 2025, on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to distribute cocaine on a vessel, and money laundering conspiracy.
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The conviction stems from his role in a massive, $100 million international cocaine trafficking organization that planned to use an underwater drone to ship drugs to Europe.
Federal officials said Didani and others planned and financed the distribution of cocaine from several places, including Michigan.
On Tuesday, March 31, Didani was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
A global operation with deep roots
Didani reportedly directed transnational cocaine operations from approximately 2015 until his arrest in March 2021.
During that period, he reportedly orchestrated shipments of roughly 9,000 pounds of cocaine and laundered millions of dollars in proceeds.
Authorities said Didani’s network used international shipping routes, luxury real estate purchases, and high-end spending -- including armored vehicles and bulletproof gear -- to move and conceal drug money.
The ‘cocaine torpedo’ plan
Federal officials claim Didani led the organization while another member oversaw the design of an underwater drone that could transport large shipments of cocaine to Europe.
Prosecutors called it a “cocaine torpedo.”
Didani and a co-conspirator allegedly planned and paid for the construction of a submersible container designed to attach to the hull of a cargo ship.
Feds said the drone would be equipped with an underwater modem and GPS antenna.
When the ship would arrive at its destination, the cocaine drone would be remotely released from the containership and picked up by a fishing boat controlled by the organization.
A Canadian firm was reportedly hired to design a prototype, though the company was told the device was intended for ship-hull scrubbing.
The plan was ultimately abandoned after the co-conspirator died in July 2018.
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Money laundering in Michigan
Prosecutors say evidence gathered from phone warrants, iCloud data, and bank records ties Didani directly to money laundering activity in Michigan.
Authorities said communications recovered from those sources included discussions about “cleaning money.”
One example reportedly involved approximately $864,000 in checks cashed through pawn shops and gold shops, which was then converted into bulk cash.
In June 2016, after cashing $200,000 in checks, the money was taken to Illinois to purchase more cocaine.
Court documents show photos of Didani reportedly posing with large amounts of cash ahead of cocaine purchases
Criminal history, contraband phone add to sentence
Prosecutors pushed for a lengthy sentence, saying Didani has five prior felony convictions and 14 misdemeanor convictions, and has virtually no lawful employment history.
His felony record allegedly includes multiple drunk driving convictions beginning in 2001, a false pretenses conviction involving a $100,000 fraud scheme, and an assault and battery conviction following an incident in which officers recovered cocaine, a semi-automatic firearm, and three loaded magazines from his apartment.
Prosecutors said Didani showed contempt for rules even while in custody. In September 2025, officials at FCI Milan reportedly found a TCL smartphone hidden inside a hollowed-out stack of papers in Didani’s cell.
A search of the phone showed Didani had been conducting internet searches for cocaine seizures, researching his co-conspirators, browsing news about his own case on YouTube and social media, and had a photograph of kilograms of cocaine saved on the device.