Italy to help Albania fight drug traffic, organized crime

TIRANA, May 27 – Italy has pledged to continue joint work and cooperation with Albania’s law enforcement authorities in the fight against organized crime and drug traffic.
Albania produces large quantities of marijuana and is a transit point for Asian heroin, making fighting its production and traffic a top priority for the government as the country seeks to join the European Union.
Italian Guardia di Finanza will again bring an airplane that will monitor Albania’s territory on spots where marijuana is planted.
Last year it showed that only in southern Lazarat commune with an estimated cannabis sativa production up to 900 tons, at an estimated value of 4.5 billion euro, or half the country’s GDP.
This year police have seized about 20 tons of marijuana during the first four months of the year
Italy is a main market for Albania’s marijuana.
Earlier this month, an Italian pilot land crashed with his small plane allegedly trying to be loaded with cannabis waiting in a vehicle nearby. An Albanian man was also arrested and admitted to police his role in the alleged traffic effort. This Tuesday police reported that they had arrested another person, an Albanian who is also believed to be involved in the same trafficking case.
Lecce’s anti-mafia prosecutor, Cataldo Motta, said that Italy is conducting an investigation into alleged drug trafficking by air following the plane crash-landing in Divjake.
The Italian prosecutor said there will be a continuous exchange of information between the two countries.
“It is known that in Albania has a huge drug cultivation and Albania is the largest supplier of this course. It is a known fact that Vlora is only 44 miles away Lecce and the first market for the distribution of drugs is Lecce,” said Motta.
Balkan countries have also pledged to increase efficiency in the fight against organized crime, drug trafficking, according to a regional meeting of prosecutors.
Such cooperation already has brought positive results. Albania’s Prosecutor general Adriatik Llalla said that thanks to that cooperation prosecutors have become stronger in front of organized crime.
“Criminal activities and organized crime are a regional and global problem, and this problem exceeds national boundaries,” Llalla said.