Government’s first 100 days, cannabis planting was stopped, but not international traffic

These promises are also partially realized. The Police Vetting structure has been drafted and will be discussed in Parliament on January 15^th. This is a kept promise, although the draft-law has not been made public yet and the real effects are expected much later.

The second promise, the national operation against criminal networks can be considered partially completed as well. The “Force of Law” operation against criminal groups didn’t have good results. One prostitution case that was completed in Shkoder had been under investigation for six months, and it had been reported by a human rights NGO.

The second case was in Fier, where the police ended up seizing just a few grams of cannabis, one handgun and arrested three persons, one of whom was left on house arrest.

Now that the operation has started, the police don’t seem to have specialists to fight criminal groups. The police announcement appealing officers to make applications gives the impression that regional forces lack human resources.

The operation will be assisted by seven foreign investigators, while they are still working for establishing offices of the central task force, where they will also install special equipment.

The fight against cannabis, one of the other promises, seems to have been won as regards cultivation. The recent observation of the Guardia di Finanza, on November 3^rd, showed that there were 5000 cultivated plants. In 2016, police have destroyed 2.5 million plants.

While the fight against cultivation was won, the international drug traffic has continued. There have been at least 4 efforts during the first 100 days for transportation of huge drug quantities, which were caught by police forces of our neighbours, occasionally cooperating with the Albanian Police.

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