After the recent admissions of Minister of Interior Affairs Fatmir Xhafaj that the State Police has indeed been involved in the cultivation of cannabis, pulling the rug from under the claims of former Minister Saimir Tahiri, Exit has received confirmation from the Ministry of Interior that the famous “Guardia Finanza report,” does not exist.
On October 7, 2016, former Minister Tahiri distributed data from a “report,” which he claimed was compiled by the Italian Guardia di Finanza. This report allegedly claimed that in 2016 the State Police had destroyed 99.8% of the cannabis in the country. Although hardly anyone believed the data, Minister Tahiri used it aggressively to silence opponents and attack the opposition.
In a Facebook post, Tahiri wrote:
For those who have eyes and ears, below you can find the official data from the Guardia di Finanza and the State Police […]:
[…] 5. In 2016 the police destroys 99.8% of the cultivated area. In 2012 it destroyed 0% and in 2013 7.5%. Who is the narcotrafficker?!?! Which is the government linked with drug gangs?!?!
After filing a freedom of information request to obtain the report cited by Tahiri, the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Genci Gjonçaj, confirmed that “a public report in the format that you requested does not exist.”
The letter further gives information about how the data from Tahiri’s “report” were acquired:
The information published by the State Police and the representatives of the Guardia di Finanza, on October 7, 2016, has been drafted based on the criminal procedures for the cultivation and the trafficking of narcotics, carried out in that period. These procedures have been deposited at the Prosecutor and as such cannot be published because of the investigation.
In other words, the “99.8%” destruction rate of Tahiri was based on the criminal procedures started by the State Police. This percentage thus tells us that in case the State Police found a field planted with cannabis, this field was destroyed in 99.8% of the cases. One wonders what happened to the cannabis in the remaining 0.2%!
So this “99.8%” claimed by Tahiri says absolutely nothing about the actual number of cannabis plantations in the country, the activity of the police, or their success rate. All it says is “we destroyed whatever we found.” But that doesn’t say much at all!
