Things have moved fast this month in U.S. relations with Albania, Europe\u2019s poorest nation, and cannabis is at the center of the flurry.<\/p>\n
At the start of April, the U.S. State Department\u2019s\u00a0Bureau for International Narcotics & Law Enforcement Affairs<\/a>\u00a0issued its\u00a0annual report<\/a>\u00a0with harsh words for Albania. The report stated: \u201cAlbania is both a source country of cannabis and, increasingly, a transit country for cocaine and heroin commanded largely by organized crime elements moving\u00a0illicit drugs<\/a>\u00a0from source countries into European markets.\u201d<\/p>\n Even while luridly warning that Albania is emerging as a trafficking hub for deadly white powders, the report admitted that \u201cAlbania\u2019s role as source or market for illicit drugs beyond cannabis is minor.\u201d What is centrally at issue here is cannabis. \u201cEfforts to eradicate and prosecute cannabis growers have been extensive but uneven,\u201d the report complained.<\/p>\n The report acknowledged that \u201cthe volume of drug seizures and number of drug-related arrests in 2018 was significant, driven largely by Albanian law enforcement cooperation with international partners, increased international pressure and Albania\u2019s efforts to accede to the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n However, this summation was followed up with an unsubtle lecture: \u201cAlbania\u2019s institutions are moderately equipped to fight drug crimes, but corruption at every level of government limits their overall effectiveness. Official corruption is pervasive and fosters an environment in which drug traffickers are largely able to operate with impunity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Though the report did note the social roots of Albania\u2019s endemic narco-economy (\u201ca high rate of unemployment and weak rule of law\u201d), it only called for \u201cjustice reform\u201d and efforts to \u201cerode the influence of organized crime\u201d as solutions. It declined to address the endemic unemployment that has plagued the country since the end of communist rule more than a generation ago. Cannabis has filled the economic vacuum left by the communist collapse, which does not bode well for eradication efforts.<\/p>\n The European Union is also making it clear that it has had enough. The first week of April saw\u00a0coordinated police raids<\/a>\u00a0across five European countries against what was said to be a single network of Albanian traffickers, based around \u201cclans\u201d from the south of the country. A total of 67 arrests were made, most of them in Belgium \u2014 where 8,000 cannabis plants were reported seized.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis investigation targeted an Albanian criminal organization involved in multiple crimes, including the large-scale traffic in cannabis, cocaine, prostitution, human trafficking and money laundering,\u201d a spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor\u2019s office stated. The report seemed to indicate that the Albanian network had established grow operations within Belgium. Arrests were also reported in the Netherlands, Italy, France and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n After the raids, the Dutch Justice Minister\u00a0read the riot act<\/a>\u00a0to Albania, lecturing, \u201cCriminal groups with a link to Albania play a big role in organized crime in the Netherlands.\u201d<\/p>\n There is a grim sense of\u00a0deja vu\u00a0<\/em>to all this. Under pressure from D.C. and the European Union, Prime Minister Edi Rama has pledged a new campaign against corruption, trafficking and cannabis cultivation. Albania launches such renewed efforts regularly \u2014 yet remains\u00a0Europe\u2019s top producer of illicit cannabis<\/a>. <\/p>\n The crackdown in 2014 started to look like a real war. In June of that year, hundreds of troops backed up by armored vehicles were sent into the village of Lazarat<\/a>, known as Albania\u2019s \u201cMarijuana Mountain.\u201d The local growers resisted with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, leaving casualties on both sides. When the village was finally subdued, authorities reported that 102 tons of harvested cannabis and 530,000 plants had been destroyed.\u00a0<\/p>\n A year later, hundreds of troops, this time backed up by two army helicopters, returned to Lazarat in what seems to have been a\u00a0mopping-up operation<\/a>\u00a0against the armed growers. The raid was supposedly sparked by a deadly attack on a solider patrolling the area.<\/p>\n In 2015, the government announced that Albania was now \u201cmarijuana-free\u201d following the aggressive eradication campaign. But that really seems to have meant that big, open plantations like those in Lazarat had been cleared out. Cultivation was now spread out in small, clandestine plots \u2014 and Albania retained its spot on top of the continent\u2019s illicit cannabis market.<\/p>\n On April 22, \u00a0Albania\u2019s Defense Ministry\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that the United States had provided three Black Hawk helicopters to the nation\u2019s\u00a0military<\/a>. Defense Minister Olta Xhacka signed the deal while visiting a New Jersey National Guard base. The choppers are part of a U.S. support package for Albania, which joined NATO in 2009 and has been upgrading its military equipment to bring it into conformity with alliance standards. But there is little doubt the choppers are intended for cannabis enforcement.<\/p>\n A renewed eradication campaign may be tempting further violent confrontations, especially as Albania already shows signs of mounting social discontent. And there is the possibility, seen in so many places around the world, that military hardware supplied to fight the narco trade could be used in political repression.<\/p>\n Since December, Albania has seen a\u00a0mounting wave of protests<\/a>\u00a0by students and the political opposition,\u00a0demanding early elections<\/a>\u00a0amid discontent over official corruption. These climaxed last month, when protesters repeatedly\u00a0attempted to storm the parliament building<\/a>\u00a0in the capital Tirana, and were dispersed by riot police with tear-gas and water-cannons.\u00a0<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, why do you think the United States would intervene in the illicit cannabis market overseas?<\/p>\n The post Why Is the U.S. Providing Aid to Albania\u2019s Cannabis Eradication Campaign?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Things have moved fast this month in U.S. relations with Albania, Europe\u2019s poorest nation, and cannabis is at the center of the flurry. At the start of April, the U.S. State Department\u2019s\u00a0Bureau for International Narcotics & Law Enforcement Affairs\u00a0issued its\u00a0annual report\u00a0with harsh words for Albania. The report stated: \u201cAlbania isContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7332,1143,50,5281,1513,6899,9799,230,9800,81,2105],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34817,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34816\/revisions\/34817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Stern Warnings from Abroad<\/h4>\n
Corruption, Crackdown, Unrest<\/h4>\n
Aid \u2014 Or Enabling?<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Why Is the U.S. Providing Aid to Albania\u2019s Cannabis Eradication Campaign?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"