Albanian Police Seize Drugs Bound for Italy

Police found the drugs stashed in a van parked on secluded beach. It is believed that speed boats were to be used to traffic the drugs to Italy.

Media reports said police have arrested one suspect and issued warrants for five others.   

The drugs are believed to have originated in the notoriously lawless village of Lazarat, a no-go zone for police.

Lazarat has often been described as Albania’s drug capital, and dozens of wanted traffickers are believed to be hiding there. According to the Italian financial police an estimated €4.5 billion worth of marijuana was produced in Lazarat in 2013 alone.

In 2007, following a police shootout that left a suspected trafficker from the village dead, gangs from Lazarat set fire to the police station in the neighbouring town of Gjirokastra. Special Forces from Tirana had to deployed to restore order in the town.  

The villagers have had several armed confrontations with police in recent years.

Outgunned, the local police have settled for blocking water trucks heading for the village and intercepting shipments, rather than going in and arresting those who grow and sell marijuana.