WAS: Albania transit country for strong drugs

The U.S. State Department handed the annual report on the international war strategy against narcotics to Congress on Thursday. In part for Albania, The UN says this country is simultaneously a source of cannabis and increasingly, a transit country for cocaine and heroin.

In this report covering 2018, the State Department says that the transit of cannabis as well as strong drugs is controlled mainly by elements of organised crime that transfer illegal drugs from source countries to European markets.

The volume of drug seizures and drug-related arrests in 2018, said the report, was significant, driven mainly by the co-operation of legal bodies with international partners, increased international pressure and Albania's efforts to enter the European Union.

According to the report, Albania's role as a source or market for illicit drugs beyond cannabis is small, but there has been an increase in cocaine seizures going through Albania to Europe, in addition to the discovery of heroin and cocaine processing labs in northern and central Albania. Albanian criminal groups trafficke cocaine and heroin towards European markets from stem countries in South America and Asia. ”

The report says corruption at all levels of governance limits the overall effectiveness of the fight against narcotics.

Official corruption, it says, is widespread and promotes an environment in which drug traffickers are well able to act unpunished.

According to the report, efforts to eradicate cannabis and prosecute its growers have been widespread, but not altogether, and the intervention in the drug trafficking infrastructure that has been created over the past two decades poses a challenge.

The report says that high unemployment rates and poor rule of law have created an ideal environment for organised crime groups that cause the problem of drug control in Albania.

Money Laundering

In the part of the money laundering report, the State Department says that during 2018, the Albanian government made no significant progress in preventing money laundering and financial crimes. As a cause, the corruption - pointing report, increased organised crime networks, and weak legal and governmental institutions.

The country's economy reportedly operates in large measure with cash and information, with considerable foreign currency inflows. The crimes that generate more money in Albania are drug trafficking, tax evasion and smuggling, according to the UN.

Other important elements in this regard, according to the report, are counterfeiting, smuggling of weapons and trafficking of human beings.

Albania, the report says, serves as a base of operations for organised crime groups operating in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and South America.

Recent reforms in justice, verifying judges and prosecutors for corruption and for links to organised crime, as well as establishing a police task aimed at organised crime activities, the report said, have created a positive trajectory for Albania to address the issue of money laundering and financial crimes.

However, report concludes UNITED corruption presents a challenge to their solution.

The annual report on the international drug war strategy, demanded by Congress and divided into two volumes, praised foreign governments' efforts to reduce the production, trafficking and illegal use of drugs, as well as their work to combat drug trafficking laundering. The report began publication in 1986, and the current publication covers the 2018 calendar year. / VOA