Police destroy 2,300 marijuana plants in first Lazarat operation
Albanian police destroyed more than 2,300 marijuana plants in parcels and abandoned houses in the southern village of Lazarat in August 2006, the first major operation in a village long untouched by police. No arrests were made.
Albanian police destroyed more than 2,300 marijuana plants in the southern village of Lazarat in what the Tirana Times described as the first great operation in the village.[1]Officers found the plants in different parcels and abandoned houses in Lazarat, about 20 kilometres from the Kakavie checkpoint on the border with Greece, but made no arrests.[1]
Lazarat had been an untouched area for police.[1]Two years earlier, an Italian helicopter surveying cannabis plantations in the area had been shot at by local residents; one person was arrested much later.[1]The paper noted that post-communist Albania had become a frequent transit point for smugglers moving people, drugs and weapons into the European Union, and that the international community had told Albania it must curb trafficking to advance toward the EU and NATO.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Only one source could be found; the operation date comes from the article's 21 August dateline and its 1 September publication, so it may have begun earlier.
A Reuters video report describes officers being shot at during a recent operation in the same village, but it could not be opened, so whether it shows this operation is unconfirmed.
No arrests were made and the opened source does not say whether growers were later identified or charged.
No photograph of the operation with a recoverable direct image address was found in the opened source.
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.
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.
