Albanian Minister of Interior Sandër Lleshaj admitted that cannabis cultivation continues in the country’s main districts.
During a virtual meeting with Chief of State Police Ardi Veliu and district police chiefs on Tuesday, Lleshaj said that Gjirokastra, Shkodra, Durrës, and Vlora, emerge as the main problematic areas, though other districts like Lezha, Berat, and Elbasan, have also seen attempts at cannabis cultivation.
He announced that the police would be using helicopters to monitor suspicious activity from the air.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Lleshaj advised police chiefs to fight every unsanctioned umbrella in the beaches “as if it were a cannabis plant.”
In their May 2020 report, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) found that cultivation of cannabis in Albania is expected to increase in the following months, due, in part, to the fact that law enforcement resources are diverted to enforcing COVID-19 restriction measures.
