Police seize motorboats along coast

TIRANA, Oct 13 – Border police along southwestern Vlora’s coastline seized two motorboats last weekend.
The boats did not have the proper sailing documents. They were confiscated by police.
A memorandum that prohibited boats in Albanian waters expired last year but has not formally been thrown out yet. Police patrols in the region have intensified since June, when the coast was re-opened for commercial use after a three-year ban enforced by the current Democratic Party rule.
Albania’s coastline has posed a serious problem since the early 1990s due to illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
The boat prohibition was considered as a successful effort by the Tirana government to stop illegal trafficking across the Adriatic Sea into Italy which has often commended the act in the international arena.