TIRANA, Sept. 16 – Albanian authorities said this week they have destroyed almost all of the marijuana planted in the country.
Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri on Wednesday said that 99.2 percent, or 690,000 cannabis plants, of the 44 hectares identified in aerial maps with the help of the Italian Guardia di Finanza have been destroyed so far this year.
Albania was long a major marijuana producer in Europe. A crackdown started last year, when police stormed the southern Lazarat village with armored personnel carriers — despite coming under automatic weapon and rocket fire by drug growers.
Last year police destroyed some 550,000 cannabis plants and 102 tons of marijuana with an estimated market value at the time of 7 billion euros ($8.5 billion) — more than two-thirds of the country’s annual gross domestic product.
Tahiri said that based on the Guardia di Finanza aerial maps this year there were eight times less parcels planted with cannabis, compared to 323 hectares in 2013. Only 7.5 percent of that was destroyed that year.
The minister also said that there were hundreds of persons detained, arrested or declared wanted at large identified with the planting of cannabis this year.
The planters had changed plans this year, moving from nearby parcels planted before to more hidden areas, including at high elevations, up to more than 1,500 meters above the sea levels, a sign that they feared the crackdown.
Tahiri, who has come under attack by the opposition for alleged ties to smugglers, said the success was his answer to the accusations.
He said the fight the current government is conducting against cannabis in the last two years “was not even imagined or considered from the previous government.”
“The fight against drugs knows no end. It continues,” Tahiri said. “The fight against crime, drugs and anti-law has not ended, it has a high cost and it is extremely difficult but it continues.”
The Italian and U.S. ambassadors spoke at an event organized in Tirana, commending Albanian authorities for the significant fight against drugs and reassured them of their support.
Italy’s Guardia di Finanza launched a new project in cooperation with the Albanian police this year, and Washington has nominated a federal prosecutor and an FBI agent, who would also cooperate with other U.S. experts to assist Albanian authorities.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said the police operations against drug cultivation “had touched large criminal interests,” mentioning billions of euros lost from the criminal gangs during the crackdown.
He accused the opposition of speaking on behalf of such interests when it accused government officials of having ties with the traffickers.
