Data published on Monday by the Albanian Police but also by the Italian one, which this year again conducted aerial monitoring of areas planted with cannabis sativa, show an increase in cannabis cultivation for the second consecutive year.

According to the Italian Guardia di Finanza, during 185 hours of flights, carried out from June 1 to October 31, with an aircraft equipped with advanced technology, 1964 suspected cannabis plantations were observed, and in them were found and destroyed later by the Albanian police over 58.000 roots.

Last year, when 225 hours of flight were realized, 1109 plantations were identified and 25,719 roots were destroyed.

But for the Director of the International Police Cooperation Service, in the Italian Ministry of Interior, Brigadier General Giuseppe Spina, although there is an increase compared to a year ago "the data are clear evidence of the interventions undertaken on the ground by the Albanian police in the war to this phenomenon ", said General Spina, referring to the fact that during 2020, until October 31," marijuana trafficking to Italy, marked a significant decline, by 36.7 percent, dropping to 910 kilograms, from 1.4 tons coming from Albania and seized by the Italian authorities,” in 2019 from January to October.

Beyond the interventions in the territories signaled by the aerial monitoring, the Albanian police for its part has carried out the destruction of other plants.

In total, according to the General Director of Police Ardi Veliu, during this year "137,216 narcotic plants have been detected and destroyed”.

In the last two years, the cultivation of cannabis sativa has had an increasing trend. After the eruption that the phenomenon experienced in 2016, it marked a significant decline by capturing the lowest quotas in 2018, when the Italian Guardia di Finanza identified only 27 plots in an area of ​​less than 1 hectare, in which 675 were destroyed plants. In total, the Albanian police announced that they had destroyed a little more than 35.000 roots.