Police continue to keep up pressure on illegal planting and trafficking of marijuana
TIRANA, April 28 – Specialized aircraft of Italy’s Guardia di Finanza that are equipped with advanced technology will for the third year in a row fly over Albanian territory to carry out a mapping of marijuana plantations in order to help Albanian authorities eliminate them, the Italian ambassador said this week.
Ambassador Massimo Gaiani talked about the operation during a meeting with Albania’s new national police chief, Haki Cako.
The operation comes at the request if Albanian authorities in their increased efforts to fight the widespread cultivation of cannabis sativa.
Last year they achieved significant successes following a large-scale operations in southern Lazarat commune and the Malësi e Madhe district in the north.
They destroyed 530,000 marijuana plants in plantations and seized over 100 tons of marijuana.
Police continue to keep up the fight against drugs as a top priority, reporting almost every day on different operations or arrests of suspects involved in illegal planting and trafficking.
On Tuesday, for example, police reported they had seized and destroyed 5,780 cannabis plants in the south-western Vlora district.
They also declared wanted at large the owner of the land and his two sons and arrested his wife for failure to declare the illegal activity.
