TIRANA, Feb. 12 – Italian authorities in the city of Ancona have seized eight tons of marijuana loaded in a semi-trailer that had arrived on the ferry line between Albania and Italy.
Police arrested the driver, a 38-year-old from Macedonia and told local Italian media that police had been following the truck, to Milan and then to Venice, hoping to find the place where the drugs would be delivered.
In a fuel supply point in the province of Venice, the truck driver abandoned the semi-trailer and resumed the journey to return to the Balkans via the land route, according to Italian media, which also reported that Albania was the suspected country of origin for the marijuan.
In addition to regular busts in Albania, Greek and Italian police continue to seize drugs thought to originate in Albania.
Residents of Corfu found last week dozens of kilograms of marijuana abandoned on the coastline, while a few days ago the inhabitants of one another island, Zakynthos, had discovered a quantity of marijuana that had come ashore.
Police also seized about 160 kilograms of marijuana in two operations, one on the outskirts of Ioannina and another near the Albanian border.
Albania has become a hot spot of marijuana cultivation and export, and the government has come under fire by the opposition of not doing enough to fight the trend.
