Italian Anti-Mafia Director: Albanian Drug Cultivation Tripled

After a meeting in Tirana with General Prosecutor Adriatik Llalla, Italian Anti-Mafia Director Franco Roberti declared that “drug cultivation has tripled in Albania.” Roberti added that the influx of narcotics from Albania to Italy had increased considerably:

Together with our Albanian colleagues we need to understand what the reason is for the increase in this traffic and at the same time what we can do to improve our strategies and collaboration.

Only within the month February several tons of cannabis sativa have been captured on the coast of Italy.

A few days ago OSCE Ambassador Bernd Borchardt warned that the June elections are at risk because of drugs money pumped into the black economy.

Minister of Interior Affairs Saimir Tahiri responded to Borchardt’s and Roberti’s concerns, claiming that all the drugs money is “from the time of [former Prime Minister Sali] Berisha.”