FLASH
Shkruar nga Louis Seiller
The consumption of hard drugs is constantly increasing almost everywhere in Europe and this brings with it an increase in social problems related to drug trafficking. To reach Europe, cocaine is often hidden in containers with agricultural fertilizers, coffee or bananas. These containers arrive at the ports of the continent: Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bilbao… This is the case, for example, of the port of Durrës, in Albania. French public radio has dedicated a report to this phenomenon.
Around the roundabout that marks the entrance to the port, there are a few small shops and cafes filled with people who work nearby. There I meet Agron, in his sixties. This pensioner from Durrës passes by the containers every day. The bananas come from Ecuador. They enter Albania and then head towards Kosovo and further, to Europe. As everywhere, the authorities are fighting drug trafficking. At the port, they monitor with cameras, scanners and other equipment. And when they find drugs, they make seizures. But they are a little afraid, because it is not easy to fight against traffickers. “ It takes a lot of courage ,” he says.
After arriving at the port of Durres, cocaine is usually loaded back onto ferries to Italy, across the Adriatic Sea. But it is also often transported by road to Kosovo, Serbia, and the highways leading to Central Europe.
Fatjona Mejdini is the regional coordinator of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. “ Balkan networks have become major players in international cocaine trafficking. These groups try to send cocaine to Balkan ports, such as Durrës. But according to their studies, the quantities are smaller than those going to Western European ports, because it is much more difficult to detect the drug there due to the large volume of goods and the proximity to the cocaine consumer market ,” she says.
In Belgrade and Tirana, construction of luxury buildings has increased in recent years. Modern towers like in Dubai, even though Albania was until recently one of the poorest economies in Europe. For many Albanians, there is no doubt that these projects are financed by cocaine money.
Former Economy Minister Zef Preçi says that many of these towers are built by companies with very low initial capital, a few hundred thousand euros, while investments run into hundreds of millions. “ Behind these constructions, there are “big fish” who launder drug trafficking money, especially cocaine coming from Latin America ,” he says.
Fighting more against organized crime is one of the conditions imposed on Albania to join the EU. In 2021, about two and a half tons of cocaine were seized in Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. / Radio France Internationale
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