Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri said on Wednesday 16 September 2015 that Albanian police had destroyed 99.2 percent of the cannabis mapped from the air that year: 690,000 plants on 44 hectares (109 acres).[1][2] He presented the drive as the near-eradication of the crop in a country long counted among Europe’s main cannabis producers.[1][2]
Tahiri said police had destroyed about 550,000 plants and 102 tons of marijuana the year before, a haul valued at the time at 7 billion euros (8.5 billion dollars), more than two-thirds of Albania’s gross domestic product.[1] He said growers had responded by moving to high mountain parcels and using small planes to fly the drug abroad.[1]
Italy and the United States backed the crackdown: Italy’s Guardia di Finanza assisted the police, both ambassadors commended the operations, and Washington nominated a federal prosecutor and an FBI agent to help local police.[1][2] Prime Minister Edi Rama said the operations had cost the criminal gangs billions of euros.[1]
