Albania destroys 11,729 cannabis plants in October Focus operation
Interior Minister Taulant Balla said police arrested or proceeded against 25 people and destroyed 11,729 cannabis plants during October 2023 under the national Operation Focus. Indoor cultivation sites were also uncovered during the month.
🇦🇱 Albania (nationwide Operation Focus October results) · Albania
Interior Minister Taulant Balla said on 23 October 2023 that 25 people had been arrested or proceeded against and 11,729 cannabis plants destroyed during October under the national Operation Focus.[1]Balla said the State Police continues to systematically strike groups and criminal activity linked to cultivating and distributing narcotics.[1]
The statement also says criminal cultivation activity in indoor settings was uncovered during the month.[1]It gives no district breakdown and names no individual suspects.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
25
Plants destroyed
11,729
Agency type
Police
Cannabis
Living plants (11,729 plants)
Activity
Cultivation
Grown
Indoor
Case stage
Under investigation
Sources
Bota Sot Newsbotasot.alSQOperacioni "Fokusi", reagon ministri Balla: Policia vijon të godasë grupet dhe veprimtaritë kriminale që lidhen me kultivimin dhe shitjen e narkotikëve
Open questions the AI reported
Only one source for the minister's October statement could be opened; it reprints BalkanWeb, whose original page could not be recovered.
The statement counts 25 people arrested or proceeded against together, so the arrested figure mixes detentions and referrals.
No breakdown by district, no area cleared and no indoor-site count were published.
Albanian police arrested, detained or prosecuted 165 people over cannabis cultivation in 2026 and destroyed 171,566 plants in 593 cases, plus 132,000 seedlings before planting. Presenting the 2026 campaign results with Italy's Guardia di Finanza on 10 November, authorities also reported 17 indoor cases and 89 officials prosecuted for abuse of office.
On 20 June 2026 police in Malësi e Madhe burned 306 suspected cannabis plants in Ivanaj and arrested two men at the plot, N. Z., 40, and K. P., 43. The file went to the Shkodër prosecutor.
Albanian and Montenegrin police destroyed 11,358 cannabis plants in Kelmend near the border and arrested a Shkodër man caught at the site with two unlicensed firearms. It was presented as the two forces' first joint anti-cannabis operation.
Albanian police said on 7 October 2016 they had destroyed 2.4 million cannabis plants on 219 hectares since June, four times the 2015 total, arresting 248 people in 1,260 operations supported by Italian aerial surveillance.
