Drugs remain a main police concern

TIRANA, Feb. 23 – There are daily news from the Interior Ministry and police that people are arrested while selling or transporting illegal drugs around the country.
Last Sunday police achieved good success when they arrested seven suspects for trafficking hundreds of kilograms of marijuana grown in Southern Albania. Border police arrested them while transporting 253 kilograms of cannabis bound for neighboring Greece, this time using horses.
The smugglers were caught by border guard as they were trying to pass southern Albanian frontier with Greece over the mountains, police said.
Police were searching for an eighth suspect thought to be the leader of the group.
Last week the coast guard in western Greece seized nearly a ton of cannabis after pursuing a speedboat from Albania to the Greek coast.
Greece is a major market for drugs and illicit weapons smuggled from neighboring Albania.
On Tuesday police arrested two in capital Tirana and seized one kilo of heroin, a drug that is usually used by rich addicts.
Albania is a main supplier of marijuana to Europe and Greece and Italy remain its main targets or crossroad for further taking it into the continent.
Police have increased their presence near schools, at least in capital Tirana, fearing the presence of persons trying to ‘catch’ new users or addicts among the high school students.
But it is also known that southern Albania, or the area near the commune of Lazarat is a source for cannabis.
One may easily ask why authorities, police do not make a thorough check of the area there to find if there is drugs. There have been made some attempts earlier but police were confronted with fire, allegedly from residents there ‘protecting’ their product.
That means that authorities should make a broader public awareness and also increase their efforts to develop that area, urge people find jobs and some income in order to forget about the easy way of earning the money with the drugs.