Tirana, Feb 28 (Tirana Echo) – Albanian Police have seized a record quantity of cocaine hidden underneath a banana cargo truck coming from Colombia to the Albanian port of Durres.
Police said the 613kg of coke seized in Durres is worth 180 million euros, while they have arrested two 25 year olds from Tropoja and from Durres.
Authorities are still looking for the owner of a private company in the village of Maminas who had placed the order for bananas from Columbia.
The police operation coded ‘Last Snow’ was confirmed today by the chief of national police who said the massive amount of cocaine spread across 528 individually wrapped packages, had transited via Italy and Malta before arriving in Albania, where it was finally confiscated.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has congratulated the Albanian police calling it an ‘exemplary and deeply meaningful operation’, while opposition parties have denounced the seizure as proof that Albania is a narco-state under the control of criminal drug gangs, while calling for the DEA to operate in Albania.
Albanian President Ilir Meta has also congratulated the police but warned that organized crime is threatening natinal security in Albania and elsewhere in the Balkans.
Albanian authorities are working with their international counterparts to investigate a larger network of international drug gangs involved in cocaine trafficking, using Albania as a focal point of further distribution into Europe.
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