Date presented in the National Drug Report 2017 of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), an EU agency, show that over the last year Albania has consolidated its position in the European drug market.
In last year’s report, the EMCCDA stressed the growing role of Albanian cannabis producer and main transit country for heroin and cocaine. Even though the government has made some recent attempts to address cannabis cultivation after intense international pressure, other drugs continue to flow relatively unhampered through the country, feeding Albanian-organized mafia networks in Western Europe.
Albania is considered a cannabis-producing country. The main recipients of Albanian cannabis are the neighbouring countries in the Western Balkans and in the EU. To combat this phenomenon, the Ministry of the Interior implements annual action plans. Cannabis products (herbal cannabis and cannabis plants) are the most commonly seized drugs in Albania. […]
Being part of the southern branch of the Balkan route, Albania is a transit country for heroin trafficking. The
main routes used are Turkey-Bulgaria-former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia-Albania, and Turkey-Bulgaria- former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia-Kosovo-Albania. Heroin is transported across Albania in trucks, buses, cars, etc. […]Most of the cocaine trafficked into the country is believed to be for domestic use, but the drug is also trafficked onwards, primarily to Greece and Italy. Since 2010, the number of cocaine seizures and also the quantities seized indicate an upward trend.
