Drug fighting, a tough job for police

TIRANA, June 20 – Albanian police operating in the Adriatic port of Vlora have seized a boatload of over 1,000 kilos of marijuana, which was apparently bound for Italy.
So far this year they have seized more than four tons of marijuana.
Albania grows marijuana and also serves as a transit route for Afghan-produced heroin. Busting drugs in its hinterland highlands is quite a challenge.
It is well known that the commune of Lazarat in southern Albania is a place where marijuana is planted.
During the last days police have blocked scores of people trying to enter the area to work there. Many police troops are deployed around the commune blocking entrance and outcome of anything without checking.
But police do not dare to enter the village streets and check the land or even the house yards if anyone is planting marijuana, or cannabis sativa as it is known there.
There have been many efforts by police before, unsuccessfully.
Local authorities at the commune claim there is no plant in their area. Police do know well. The people too when they see videos taken from foreign tourists in the area, or local television stations showing big grown plants or people working there to plant them.
That means a clean police failure.
Why? One would ask. That is not officially clear but it is said that people living in that area are and have always been very pro-rightist governing and they have always been in good jobs. Now police do not dare enter there because other times people from within the village have shot against them, and also Italian helicopters trying to check the area.
But Albania is claiming membership into the European Union and if they, the authorities managed to fulfill all the requirements for border control and give the people the right of no-visa move in the EU countries, why authorities can’t clarify, clear, give an end even to the claims or rumors on alleged cannabis planting in that area?