Tens Arrested in Albania for Drug Trafficking and Corruption

Albania's authorities have announced that through an operation, some 38 people have been arrested for drug trafficking, corruption, misuse of official position and money laundering.

Among those arrested are a prosecutor, a head of a government department and three police officers, the AP reports.

Albania's Special Anti-Corruption and Organised Crime facility, known as SPAK, said that on the basis of a two-year investigation, led by Italy, it proved that the suspects were part of four international crime groups, mainly involved in drug trafficking and that they were operating in Albania, Italy, Montenegro and Spain.

Twenty-eight of the suspects, including two bodyguards working for a former Albanian Interior Minister, were arrested in Albania.

The “public officials, in some cases drug owners themselves, had guaranteed that narcotics destined for the Italian region of Puglia would arrive either from land or sea”, the statement said.

Albanian authorities will seize assets worth millions of euros from the assets of suspects, including apartments, different estates and other businesses.

Albania was once a leading European marijuana producer and a key point of its smuggling.

Seven years ago, the number of cannabis plantations was significantly reduced by a campaign by authorities, but ongoing anti-drug operations testify that traffickers still seek alternative countries to increase or preserve marijuana and have become part of international trafficking networks of other stronger narcotics.