Police seize 15 tonnes of cannabis in Llakatund, Vlora; nine arrested
Albanian police seized about 15 tonnes of cannabis stored in three buildings in the village of Llakatund near Vlora on the night of 13 July 2017 and arrested nine people, including two local police officers. A further large cannabis load was stopped near Kavaja the same week.
Albanian police seized about 15 tonnes of cannabis in the village of Llakatund in the southwestern Vlora region on the night of 13 July 2017.[1]More than 150 officers targeted three buildings where packed cannabis was stored, including cannabis products such as chocolates, which police described as processing as well as storage centres.[2]
Nine people were arrested, including two local police officers, Avdyl Sinanaj, 56, and Lirim Lamaj, 49, who were charged with abuse of duty and cultivation of narcotic plants.[2]Officers also found a field of 260 cannabis plants said to belong to a regional police inspector.[1]Local media reported that intelligence agents had tipped off the police about the drugs.[2]
In the same week police stopped a further large cannabis load near Kavaja on the coast road toward Italy, seizing a speedboat believed to have been waiting for the drugs.[2]The two opened reports give different weights for that Kavaja seizure, so it is kept out of this report’s figures.[2][1]
Photos and video
Police load wrapped bales of seized cannabis onto a truck at night in the Vlora regionPhoto details
The two opened reports disagree on the week's Kavaja seizure, 700 kg in one and 1.3 tonnes in the other, so this report counts only the 15 tonnes at Llakatund.
The reports name two arrested officers and a police inspector linked to a 260-plant plot but give no court outcomes.
Shkodër police seized more than 56.7 kg of cannabis in ten sacks from woods and a campsite in Koman. Four men were arrested and a fifth, the brother of one of them, was left under investigation at liberty.
After a four-month inquiry, Shkodër police stopped a Volkswagen Passat in Guraj, Malësi e Madhe, and seized 265.4 kg of cannabis from the car and two homes. Four men were arrested and three relatives were declared wanted.
State Police announced two arrests at Rinas and the seizure of 61 kg of suspected cannabis in four suitcases. They said the shipment had come from Bangkok and was intended for sale in Albania.
Police arrested a 39-year-old man at Tirana International Airport after finding 19.4 kg of high-THC cannabis in his suitcase on a flight from Thailand. The seizure, made in anti-drug operation Package 6, was valued at 388,000 euros and referred to Tirana prosecutors.
