Albania’s Interior Ministry dismisses allegations of a ‘secret’ report claiming Albania is covered in cannabis plantations

Albania’s Ministry of Interior has dismissed claims today of a ‘secret’ report existence which according to Albanian online daily ‘360grade.al’ says that Albania is covered with cannabis plantations from north to south.

Earlier today, a daily news portal in Albania ‘360grade.al’ claimed that a secret report has been delivered in the hands of Albania’s Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri, informing the top police and order officials of how the cannabis cultivation in Albania has increased at an alarming rate.

The report according to 360grade.al says that around 363 cannabis plantations are spread across from the north to south Albania in an unprecedented cultivation increase within the last year, with certain areas like Shkodra, Lushnja, Fier and northern districts of Tropoja and Kukës needing urgent intervention.

The report claims that Albania has turned into drug trafficking highway between Albania to Italy and to other EU countries.

The Ministry of Interior immediately dismissed such claims as total fabrication and untrue allegations serving ‘personal political interests which in substance remain illegal criminal interests, designed specifically to undermine the work of the police in eliminating cannabis cultivations across the country’.

The Ministry of Interior has insisted today through a public statement that such a report has never existed and is untrue.Only last week, the police seized three metric tones of cannabis plants and destroyed some 13,000 plants in the northern district of Mat, with around 1.8 million plants destroyed this year, three times more than last year.

The fresh clashes between media and the interior ministry come after several weeks of allegations from opposition parties and specialized agencies working in Albania who confirm that the country’s cannabis cultivation has increased immensely during the last year, to prepare shipments typically destined for Italy, Greece and to other neighboring and EU states.

Allegations come one day after a senior Member of the European Parliament and Former Foreign Minister of Slovakia Eduard Kukan said that ‘everyone is well informed that the issue of drugs is a giant problem for Albania and the government and relevant authorities should show no mercy towards such phenomenon, otherwise it would be difficult to change the international image of Albania’.

Albania is hoping to get a positive recommendation from the European Commission to start accession talks with the EU by the end of this year, while several EU member states are reluctant to give the green light until the country gets serious in strengthening its rule of law and the fight against corruption and organized crime.