The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Major Drug Cartel Busted in Albania
| 11 September 2008 |
Over 90 suspects linked to the cartel have been arrested in northern Italy in the last few months, reported local media in Tirana.
According to the prosecutors, the organisation had a large network in Italy that dispensed the drugs, which were hauled from Turkey, through Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosovo.
After arriving in Albania, the heroin would be cut in a laboratory in the town of Shijak, and than transported to Italy through ferries from the port of Durres.
In 2003 and 2004, Italian police seized roughly 450 kilogrammes of heroin emanating from the group.
The United Nations reported in February that a key drug trafficking route through the Balkans was busier in 2007 compared to previous years.
The report by the UN International Narcotics Control Board also says it is assumed that some 3.3 million people in Europe are addicted to heroin and that “a rise in consumption is noticed in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, as well as in the countries along the Balkan route.”
Europol identifies Albania as one of the countries of the so-called southern Balkan route, a major trafficking highway that passes through Turkey, Greece and Albania and then to southern Italy.
The 2006 report of the police agency reveals that criminal gangs in Albania and Kosovo work in close cooperation with segments from Turkish organised crime and the Italian Mafia.
More than 90 percent of the heroin that makes its way into Europe comes from southeast Asia.
Italy and Albania signed an extradition agreement in November 2007, in order to intensify the war against illicit traffics on both sides of the Adriatic Sea.
