In the article “Tons of Drugs from the Sea, the Traffic of the Camorra in Marche and the Arrest of Andrea Reccia,” Giuseppe Bommarito, an Italian journalist well known for his coverage of the drug trade in the region of Marche, describes how the Balkan road across the Adriatic sea, used for the transport of cannabis produced in Albania and Afghan and Pakistani heroin, not only arrives on the shores of Puglia, but also further up north in the region of Marche, which now is becoming a preferred point of entry for traffickers.
The most recent indication is the capture of 2.3 tons of cannabis in the city of San Benedetto and the arrest of a 63-year-old Italian, who was candidate of the populist right-wing party Forza Italia for the local elections. The operation of the Italian police to capture the drugs in San Benedetto follows upon an earlier operation from July 2016, when 2 tons of drugs were seized and 5 Albanians arrested.
The Camorra, one of the Italian mafia organizations, is the most interested in drug traffic from Albania toward Marche. The places used by speedboats and small vessels loaded with cannabis arriving from Albania are close to the mouth of the rivers Potenza, Matauro, and Tronto, green areas areas with a lot of vegetation that make it easy to hide and move under the cover of darkness.
The drugs arriving in tons from Albania is genetically modified, with a very high concentration of the active substance THC.
Considering the increase in drug traffic from Albania, Bomaritto declares that the Albanian mafia, which has radicalized and operates more openly than ever, should now be considered on par with the other four Italian mafia organizations: Cosa Nostra, Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta, and the Sacra Corona Unita
