TIRANA, Aug. 19 – Hundreds of police officers were involved this week in an operation against marijuana cultivation in the Dukagjin region of northern Shkodra County.
Local officers were assisted by special police forces in an operation that started the early hours of Aug 18 in several villages of the Dukagjin region.
About 450 police officers were involved in the effort.
A police spokesman said the operation’s goal was to destroy hundreds of plots where the cannabis plants have been growing.
Dukagjin has been labeled the “Lazarat of the North” in Albanian media, after the rebel village in southern Albania known for its lawlessness and open cultivation of marijuana before a massive police operation ended the practice last year.
The northern mountainous region of Dukagjin is known for its natural beauty and a troubled history with law enforcement.
In September 2014, a police helicopter was shot and damaged by drug gangs in the region and had to perform an emergency landing, without any serious damage on the pilots. A Cougar army helicopter was sent to rescue the police chopper was also shot but not seriously damaged.
This summer police have reported the discovery and destruction of thousands of marijuana plants across Albania almost on a daily basis.
The marijuana growing cycle is currently nearing the harvesting stage, so police have a limited time to fight the growers and traffickers directly in the growing areas, authorities said.
Despite relentless law enforcement action, marijuana is clearly still being produced, based on the hundreds of plants police continue to find.
Following a tragic event in June, when a special police officer was shot dead, police resumed its massive operation in the Lazarat area.
Meanwhile, police have not stopped their operations in other areas in the country, especially in the south. This week, they have also cut and burnt thousands of plants in Korca, Tepelena, Vlora, Saranda and Delvine areas.
Fighting narcotics’ planting and illegal traffic remains a top priority of the Albanian police.
There have been very few arrests or persons declared at large in the recent operations.
Police are also facing a new trend: Cultivation in isolated rural areas where the drugs can be found from the air and destroyed but those responsible are hard to catch.
Police suspect that the trend is driven by criminal networks that pay local farmers to tend the plants, and then organize collection and transportation to Italy and Greece.
