A Michigan jury has convicted a man for his role in an international cocaine trafficking operation that involved the design of an underwater smuggling drone, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.  

The federal jury convicted Ylli Didani, of Albania, of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to distribute cocaine on board a vessel subject to U.S. jurisdiction and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments after a 12-week trial.

Evidence at the trial showed that Didani, 43, was a leader of a drug trafficking organization with ties to the U.S, South America and Europe, the attorney's office said in a release Friday.

Didani and others, who federal officials say haven't been caught, planned and funded cocaine distribution from several places, including eastern Michigan. The Attorney's office says he arranged enormous shipments of cocaine from South America to Europe.

In 2019 and 2020, law enforcement in Europe seized over 3,4000 kilograms of cocaine that the organization loaded onto five different cargo ships bound for international ports, federal officials said. The seized cocaine allegedly has a street value of over $100 million.

The attorney's office said trial evidence showed Didani and other members of the organization made a design for an underwater drone that would be used to transport large amounts of cocaine to Europe. The drone, which was planned to be equipped with a GPS antenna, would transport the drug while attached to the bottom of a cargo ship. It would be remotely released when the ship reached Europe and picked up by a fishing boat controlled by the organization.

Didani faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to federal officials.

Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration worked with police officers from Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn Heights and Northfield Township, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation agents and U.S. Customs and Border Protection on the investigation.