Police continue anti-cannabis operations countrywide

TIRANA, Aug. 11 – Police say they are continuing their operations to destroy cannabis plants across Albania, holding daily media briefings to show thousands of plants being destroyed around the country.
Authorities have focused much of their recent attention in the southwestern Vlora region, an apparently hotbed of cannabis cultivation.
In the last few days they have destroyed thousands of cannabis plants in many villages in the area. During last weekend and first day of the week they had destroyed 5,000 plants in Vlora region alone. Most plants were found in public land so police could not arrest or charge anyone.
Last weekend police also held other operations in the districts of Durres in central Albania and Shkoder in the northwest. They destroyed about 10,000 plants.
Police chief Artan Didi said that during the first seven months this year they had destroyed some 258,000 cannabis plants all around the country compared to just more than 10,000 in the same period last year.
Much of that sum comes from the mass operation in the southern commune of Lazarat in June.
Fighting drug traffic remains a top priority for police while the country is trying to progress further toward launching the membership negotiations with the European Union, which granted it the candidate status in June.