Albanian police destroy cannabis "worth EUR 7 billion"

The Albanian police say they have destroyed more than 650,000 cannabis plants worth more than EUR 7 billion since the beginning of the year.
Source: AFP, Tanjug Monday, September 14, 2015 | 16:01

Tweet

(Beta/AP, file, illustration purposes)

Albanian police spokesman Ardi Bada also told AFP that 279 suspects had been detained in the same period, while "searches for another 90 suspected offenders are still going on."
Bida added that they were helped by Italian counterparts "who provided information as well as helicopters for some operations."

According to AFP, the police said the cannabis growers are "trying to hide the crop in more isolated areas of the mountainous Balkan country, where access by road can be very difficult."

In June last year the police carried out a large-scale operation in Lazarat, "a village in southern Albania known as 'a cannabis kingdom' for its industrial-scale production of the drug," when one officer was killed in a shootout.

AFP quoted an Italian police report that said the village was producing about 900 tons of cannabis annually, worth some EU R 4.5 billion, before that operation. The 4.5 billion figure is "equivalent to almost a third of Albania's gross domestic product," noted the report.