A report on France's prestigious radio station, "Radio France Internationale", by journalist Jean-Arnault Derens describes Albania as a "narco-state in the heart of Europe".
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While cannabis production and trafficking have been on a large scale in this country for several years, the United States of America and European countries are beginning to exert increasing pressure on Edi Rama's government.
Albania has always been known for its cannabis production, but since Edi Rama came to power in 2013, the situation has changed. Production, previously concentrated in the south, has now expanded throughout the country, causing traditional agriculture to take a step back. Villagers are abandoning their lands, preferring to work on plantations, where they can earn 20 euros a day, a very good salary for Albania. This production is exported massively to Italy, and in smaller quantities to Greece. Not only would the police protect the production, but also the army's air and naval bases would be used to export the drug, the money from which would then finance the electoral campaign of Edi Rama's Socialist Party.
The “cannabisization” of the economy
The leader of the opposition, Lulzim Basha, denounces a "Cannabisization" of the Albanian economy, society and political life, and the fact is that Edi Rama seems increasingly dependent on the leaders of the drug trafficking. About 20 socialist deputies have been convicted in the past for drug trafficking or have been directly linked to it. At the end of October, the cousin of the former Minister of the Interior, Saimir Tahiri, was arrested in Sicily. The Albanian prosecution is seeking the arrest of the former minister, but Edi Rama and the Socialist Party oppose it and have refused to lift his parliamentary immunity.
But other drugs have also seen a surge in trafficking. Increasingly, heroin and cocaine are coming from Turkey via neighboring Macedonia to be re-exported from Albania in even larger quantities. Albanian drug clans appear to be taking over markets long controlled by Serbian and Montenegrin gangs across Europe.
Shocking reports
For a long time, Western embassies in Tirana have turned a blind eye, while Albania has been negotiating membership in the European Union for many years. In fact, they do not want to put Edi Rama, highly appreciated for his pro-European speeches and perceived as a guarantor of stability in Albania and the Balkans, in difficulty. However, the scale of the phenomenon makes this position inappropriate. The latest reports from the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian customs police, are shocking, as are the more confidential studies carried out by the police and secret services of various European countries.
In recent days, the US ambassador to Albania, Donald Lu, has been raising his voice, calling for “concrete results” in the fight against organised crime, but this message has almost no chance of being heard. On 30 October, the head of the Albanian secret services resigned: he could no longer stand the political pressures that prevented him from investigating trafficking. The whole question is whether Prime Minister Edi Rama is still able to break free from the dangerous grip of criminal circles and drug lords.
(Translated) BalkanWeb/ Source: Radio France Internationale)
