DETROIT — An accused drug kingpin from the Detroit area building a remote-controlled submarine to allegedly smuggle cocaine around the world dropped F-bombs and fretted about lost profits as his empire imploded following a series of seizures in European ports, according to federal court records.
In a new indictment, prosecutors alleged Ylli Didani, 44, left a digital, real-time trail of woe in texts as drug investigators across Europe seized shipments of his smuggled cocaine. In all, from Spain to the United Kingdom to the Netherlands, from 2017 to 2020, investigators seized more than 4,800 kilograms, or 10,582 pounds, of cocaine, hidden aboard cargo ships, according to the court filing.
The indictment, for the first time, explained how Didani's alleged drug ring managed to smuggle the cocaine and describes the involvement of the drug ring's secret financier, Marty Tibbitts, a telecommunications CEO from Grosse Pointe Park. And the indictment indicated Didani's drug organization is still operational, one year after his arrest, as co-conspirators were ordering, buying and picking up armored vehicles, including a 2020 Lexus LX 570, a 2020 Mercedes-Benz AMG G 63 and a 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe, as recently as last month.
The indictment also provided a peek at thousands of messages obtained by federal prosecutors working with counterparts in France and other countries. Messages shared on the secretive Sky ECC messaging app were supposed to self-destruct, but federal investigators have obtained photographs of texts exchanged among Didani and co-conspirators, prosecutors said.
"We just f----- up," Didani texted Tibbitts in November 2017 after investigators seized 140 kilograms of cocaine in the Netherlands.
"We will fix brother," Tibbitts texted.
Didani has been held without bnd since being arrested in March 2021 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. As investigators took him into custody, they seized a $3,200, 18-karat gold, black-and-clear, diamond bracelet and $12,000 stainless steel, ceramic Rolex Yacht-Master II watch.
In all, Didani faces 20 years or longer in federal prison if convicted of drug conspiracy and money laundering.
"None of the government’s allegations have been tested for truth," Didani's lawyer Wade Fink wrote in a text message Monday to The Detroit News. "That’s what happens in a courtroom. And there are endless examples of government allegations sounding great on paper, but failing to hold up in front of a jury."
Tibbitts is portrayed in the indictment as a confidant, the drug ring's money man and a key member of Didani's inner circle.
Tibbitts, 50, a dashing multimillionaire pilot and CEO of Harper Woods-based Clementine Live Answering Service, was helping Didani build a submarine designed to attach itself via magnets to ocean freighters, prosecutors said.
They called the drone "The Torpedo."
By summer 2018, a company had built a prototype of the submarine drone that was undergoing tests, according to court documents.
By using an underwater modem, the torpedo would communicate with a remote operator who could track the drone's location via an onboard GPS device.
The drug ring would be able to dispatch a fishing boat to the torpedo's location, up to 100 miles off the coast of Europe.
Investigators intercepted communications between Tibbitts and Didani from May 2016 through June 2018 that indicated a company was hired to build a prototype of the torpedo.
Submarine development stopped in July 2018. That's when Tibbitts crashed his vintage de Havilland DH 112 Venom fighter jet into a dairy barn in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Tibbitts was killed along with about 50 cattle.
Tibbitts is not identified by name in the indictment. Instead, prosecutors call him "Conspirator One." But details in court filings — including his hometown, death in a plane crash on July 20, 2018, and the first name "Marty" — match details about Tibbitts' high-profile life and death.
And sources have confirmed Tibbitts' identity in the criminal case.
Tibbitts is accused of giving a second conspirator several checks to buy bulk amounts of cocaine between June 2016 and December 2017, according to the indictment. The checks were later cashed at area banks, pawn shops and gold exchange businesses.
The money financed a sprawling operation.
Prosecutors said Didani's drug ring was operating in the metropolitan Detroit area since at least August 2016 and had ties to 14 other countries. They are Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Canada, Chile, Albania, Turkey, Brazil, Germany, Dominican Republic, United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands.
Didani relied on what he thought was a secure messaging app to oversee a drug empire that generated more than than $111.5 million, prosecutors alleged.
But prosecutors said the Sky ECC app ultimately betrayed Didani.
Investigators discovered Didani and unnamed co-conspirators used cellphones encrypted with software provided by Sky Global, a Canadian communications network and service provider.
The government's filing does not reveal how the messages were seized.
But in early March 2021, police officials in France, Belgium and the Netherlands shut down the network after hacking into Sky ECC.
The shutdown coincided with the arrests of at least 80 people and hundreds of raids across Europe. During a two-year investigation, law enforcement officials intercepted 1 billion messages and seized more than 17 tons of cocaine.
The indictment filed this month included numerous texts and portrays Didani obsessively sharing news reports as international drug investigators seized shipment after shipment around the globe.
After the 140-kilogram seizure in the Netherlands in November 2017, Didani regrouped.
On Dec. 18, 2017, he drove Tibbitts' Porsche SUV to Washington, D.C., and checked into the JW Marriott hotel, according to the indictment. Michigan Secretary of State records show a 2011 Porsche Cayenne SUV registered to Tibbitts.
The next day, at the hotel, Didani took a cellphone picture of another photo that showed more than 190 rectangular-shaped packages that resembled kilos of cocaine, prosecutors wrote.
Two days later, on Dec. 21, a co-conspirator flew to Washington in Tibbitts' private plane to give Didani approximately $450,000, according to the indictment. The money was used to pay for bulk cocaine.
Eight months later, Tibbitts was dead, the submarine development scrapped and the drug ring's security in shambles.
In summer 2019, the drug ring allegedly tried sending 753 kilograms of cocaine from Ecuador to the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Didani received a photo of booking information for the cargo ship MSC Anisha R and a bill of lading for five shipping containers, prosecutors alleged. The ship was supposed to arrive in Europe on Aug. 9, 2019, according to the indictment.
In turn, Didani shared a photo of cocaine in packages branded with an insignia of a black semiautomatic handgun, prosecutors alleged.
"The photographs also depicted the cocaine mixed in with batches of bananas and loaded into a shipping container," according to the indictment.
While the drugs were en route, Didani discussed grand plans, texting an unidentified conspirator about shipments across Europe, including Antwerp, Belgium.
"Then ... soon in Barcelona my brother," Didani texted.
The Netherlands drug shipment never reached Didani's customers. Investigators seized the drugs Aug. 9, 2019, and Didani sent photographs to a conspirator showing law enforcement officers standing in front the seized shipping container, according to the indictment.
"I got some very sad news ... ," Didani textbananed. "I mad as f--- bro."
He also texted an online news article about the MSC Anisha R drugs and a second seizure of 500 kilos of cocaine in the Netherlands, prosecutors alleged.
The losses kept coming.
In January and February 2020, Didani and others allegedly arranged for the shipment of 644 kilograms of cocaine from Ecuador to the Rotterdam port. The drugs were hidden in a shipping container aboard the Jean Gabriel cargo ship.
Investigators photographed 644 kilograms of cocaine seized in February 2020 aboard a ship in the Netherlands. Federal prosecutors accused Ylli Didani and others of allegedly arranging for the shipment of cocaine from Ecuador.
Videos found on Didani's phone showed investigators how the drugs were brought aboard the ship.
The videos showed unknown conspirators breaking into a sealed and locked container and replacing a pallet of produce with 14 black duffel bags filled with cocaine, prosecutors wrote.
Investigators discovered and seized the drugs Feb. 22, 2020.
Three days later, Didani texted a conspirator that the seizure was "very bad," according to the indictment.
"Yes bro we also lost," the conspirator wrote.
Didani was undeterred, according to the government.
That March, members of the drug ring loaded 1,000 kilograms of cocaine aboard the Bermuda cargo ship Limari. The ship left a port in Peru on March 11, 2020, bound for the Netherlands.
A conspirator sent Didani videos proving the drugs were hidden aboard the ship.
"The videos ... depict an unknown conspirator on the Limari breaking into a sealed and locked shipping container by utilizing bolt cutters to cut lock seals ... ," according to the indictment. "Several unknown conspirators placed several large black bags in the shipping container and then an unknown conspirator resealed the shipping container with new fraudulent lock seals."
The container containing the cocaine was later transferred to a second ship, the Cartagena Express.
The ruse failed. Investigators seized the drugs April 7.
During the next few days, Didani shared news articles about the seizure with a relative and another person. He also "sent text messages to the individual stating that he was really sad ... ," the indictment reads.
Investigators seized a larger shipment — 1,100 kilograms of cocaine — from the cargo ship Jenny on April 20, 2020, at the Port of Bilbao in Spain. The drugs originated in Ecuador.
Didani received several photos and videos of the drugs in black duffel bags loaded atop pallets of bananas in a shipping container, prosecutors alleged.
The largest seizure happened in the United Kingdom in September 2020 when investigators found 1,200 kilograms of cocaine hidden aboard the cargo ship Star Care in the Port of Dover.
The drugs had been shipped from Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Again, Didani shared a news article with several people describing the drug seizure, prosecutors said.
"Had some (problem) today ... ," Didani texted. "My cost was 11 mil.
"Someone make mistake," he added.
A Sept. 23 text to an acquaintance captured Didani's mood two days after the seizure.
"You get the chills," Didani wrote while linking to another news article about the seizure.
That same day, Didani complained about the drug ring's poor operational security, according to the indictment."
"I lost millions yesterday," Didani texted to an unidentified person. "Stupid f----."
Didani believed investigators had monitored phones used by members of the drug ring, prosecutors alleged.
"I don't mind losing bro," Didani texted. "But they was using sistem (sic) police broke in."
Didani's mood improved Sept. 25 and he had regained some swagger.
"I'm mad and angry. But I'm OK," Didani texted an unidentified person. "I'm sending one 4 times bigger then (sic) that."
