Drug bust puts Tirana in spotlight

Police say tons of hashish moving from Albania into rest of Europe via Greece

More than 15 tons of hashish stored in warehouses in Albania has been earmarked for distribution to Central and Western Europe, senior anti-narcotics sources told Kathimerini yesterday after authorities unraveled another network this week that trafficked drugs from the neighboring country.

The same sources said they expect European Union governments and security authorities to harden their stance toward Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who was accused last summer by the country’s opposition leader Sali Berisha of being soft on cannabis cultivators. Speaking in the Albanian Parliament in June, Berisha blasted the government for allegedly turning a blind eye to the proliferation of cannabis farms.

After the confiscation by authorities of 260 kilos of hashish, found in an international transport truck bound for Dortmund in Germany at the port of Igoumenitsa in northwestern Greece on Monday, senior police officials said the German police will have a more active role to play in the ongoing investigations.

Apart from the arrests of three suspects in Igoumenitsa and Thes- saloniki on Monday night, German police arrested a Greek national who had traveled to Germany to pick up the 260 kilos of hashish, which is an extract of the cannabis plant.

Greek police said the drugs had been imported from Albania and were stored at the facilities of an import-export company near Thessaloniki.