Fifty kilogrammes of cocaine were seized today by authorities at the Port of Durrës in Albania.
The seizure was made aboard a ship Unistream, a coal transporting ship owned by a German company called Unistream GMHB & Co KG which also owns a further 27 vessels. The captain of the ship is reported to be Russian.
The boat left Barranquilla, Colombia on 26 April and arrived in Durrës yesterday morning. A total of 53 packages of cocaine were found aboard, hidden in two bags.
The boat contained also 6500 tonnes of coal. The drugs were concealed amongst the bags of cargo and were discovered by the crane operator following a tip from international partners who alerted Albanian police to the illicit cargo.
Albania continues to be a key destination for the transit of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. While the production of cannabis has declined somewhat in recent years, Albanian gangs have simply moved production into Europe where it continues in countries such as the UK, Belgium, and Germany.
