Albanian, 31, extradited over 1,640-plant Lezha cannabis operation
Albanian police said 31-year-old Megiljan Deda was arrested in Montenegro and extradited to Albania on 19 December 2025 to face a Lezha cultivation charge from the April Operation Vacuum. That operation uncovered 1,640 cannabis plants in two villages and seized about 34 kg of cannabis in Balldre.
🇦🇱 Lezhë, Albania
Arrested
1
Plants destroyed
1,640
Cannabis
34 kg
Albanian police announced on 19 December 2025 that Megiljan Deda, 31, had been
arrested in Montenegro and extradited to Albania.[1]Police said the arrest
came from information exchanged between specialists of Interpol Tirana and
Interpol Podgorica.[1]The First Instance Court in Lezha had ordered him held
in prison in April 2025 on a charge of cultivating narcotic plants committed in
collaboration.[1]
Lezha police had declared him wanted after the April 2025 Operation Vacuum, in
which three co-defendants were caught in greenhouses at Rrabosht and Gocaj.[2]That police notice was published on 3 September 2025, when Interpol Tirana was
still working with Montenegro to complete his extradition.[2]
Montenegro was named as the country of arrest, and the 19 December police
statement reported the extradition as done through Interpol and published his
name.[3]A second outlet reported the same police account on 19 December 2025,
including the three bags of about 34 kg of cannabis seized in Balldre in April.[3]
Photos and video
Archive picture of Albanian police cars, not of this arrest; the caption carries the article headline. Photo: Pamfleti Source: Pamfleti
The sources say Deda was arrested in Montenegro but name no town or date for the arrest; 19 December 2025 is the date of the police statement and of the extradition report, not necessarily the arrest date.
Police said in their 3 September notice that extradition procedures were still being finalised; it is not clear from the opened accounts whether he was in Albania before 19 December.
At the April stage he was declared wanted as M.D., 31, resident of the village of Ungrej; the source that published his full name gives his birthplace as Lezha.
No date, court or outcome of any trial is reported; only the April 2025 detention order is recorded.
The 1,640 plants and 34 kg are context for the case: the plants were found by the April operation, not by this December arrest.
The Pamfleti picture is an archive photo of police cars, not footage of this arrest.
The April operation itself (three arrests, 1,640 plants destroyed, 34 kg seized in Balldre on 17 April) is not yet a separate tracker report.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Shqiptarja.com: In that operation police found 1,640 cannabis plants, some of them in the ground and some in pots, at Rraboshte in the Kallmet administrative unit and Gocaj in the Balldre administrative unit.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Shqiptarja.com: Police also seized about 34 kg of cannabis sativa, part of it vacuum-packed for sale, after stopping two vehicles in the village of Balldre the day before.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Hashtag.al: The April police statement said Deda was suspected of collaborating with one of the men arrested in that operation to grow those 1,640 plants.
Vau i Dejës police detained a 57-year-old Shkodra man as a suspected accomplice in growing 78 cannabis plants and producing 24.24 kg of cannabis found in Vila village. The Operation Vila case was sent to the Shkodra prosecution while inquiries continue for others involved.
Tirana police arrested two residents aged 36 and 50 in Operation Variety on suspicion of selling cocaine and cannabis. Officers seized suspected drug quantities and doses, an imitation pistol with metal bullets, two vehicles and mobile phones.
Lezha police arrested 18-year-old Klevis Paplekaj on suspicion of selling cannabis doses mainly near schools, seizing 83 doses and a mobile phone. The Operation Impulse case under the Clean Schools plan was referred to the Lezha prosecution for further action.
Albanian police arrested a 21-year-old resident of Luxembourg at Rinas airport on 10 November 2024 after finding 48 parcels holding 26.7 kg of marijuana in his suitcase from Dubai. He told investigators a man in Thailand had asked him to carry the suitcase and that he thought it held clothes.
