Although the amount of drugs seized this last month has reached record-breaking figures, Prime Minister Edi Rama continues to deny the rise of crime and drug trafficking in Albania, in which even his former right hand and former Minister of Interior Affairs, Saimir Tahiri, has been implicated. Prime Minister Rama appeared last night in Roland Qafoku’s talk show “Debati” on Channel One, claiming that “There is no way Albania is a place where cannabis is grown.”
Even though multiple reports mention that Albanian crime syndicates have taken over large parts of international drug trafficking, and in Italy Albanian organizations have already been called a “fifth mafia clan,” the Prime Minister continues to pretend otherwise, stating “There is organized crime in Albania, but nothing like a mafia.”
Prime Minister Rama also, once again, declared victory over the cannabis cultivation in the country – “We have won the war against cannabis cultivation” – after he has made similar (and factually untrue) claims in 2015 and 2016.
Finally, in the interview Prime Minister Rama called the UN-published series of reports that placed Albania’s cocaine consumption per capita at 2.5%, among the highest in the world, “simply idiotic.”
Meanwhile, in spite of the massive amounts of drugs seized, not a single drug lord or “big fish” has been arrested.
