EUROPOL: Albania remains a major source of herbal cannabis trafficked into the EU
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The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EUROPOL) considers Albania a “major source of herbal cannabis trafficked into the EU”. In the latest report published by EUROPOL, on serious and organized crime threat assessment for 2021, Albania continues to be mentioned in a negative way regarding its role in herbal cannabis trafficking in Europe. This report comes only one month after the report of the United States Department of State on International Narcotics Control, where it stated that “Albania is a source country of cannabis and a home base for organized crime groups moving narcotics from source countries into European markets,” adding also that “drug trafficking organizations led by or principally consisting of Albanian nationals are active internationally, and their illicit profits are laundered in Albania.
According to EUROPOL, “Criminal networks engaged in cannabis trafficking are highly organised. They are typically hierarchically structured with roles and levels well-defined around the leadership, or relatively tightly organised but unstructured, and surrounded by a network of individuals engaged in criminal activities. A large share of the cases reported to Europol featuring fatal and serious violence are related to drugs, in particular the trade in cannabis,” says the report.
The Balkans overall remains a region quite problematic for the heroin trafficked in the EU. “The Balkan routes remain the main entry routes for heroin trafficked to the EU. For the most part, heroin is trafficked along these routes in lorries hidden among legal freight and cover loads or in concealed compartments,” says the EUROPOL report. Also, “more than 50 % of all reported suspected organised criminals active in the EU are non-EU nationals. Half of these non-EU nationals originate from countries in the EU’s neighbourhood, such as the Western Balkan region, eastern European countries, and North Africa,” says the report.
The Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) 2021 provides an overview of the current state of knowledge on criminal networks and their operations based on data provided to Europol by Member States and partners and data collected specifically for the SOCTA 2021
