Albania: Police officer killed in suspected drug crime

TIRANA, Albania

A police officer was shot dead and two other policemen were injured Wednesday morning in a suspected drug-related crime in southern Albania, Albanian police said in a statement.

According to Albanian police, a special security forces unit had stopped a car in the Lazarat Village when it came under fire by an unidentified gunman from a nearby house that left an officer, Ibrahim Basha, 31, dead and two other policemen injured.

“The driver of the car was detained,” the statement said, adding that the car was allegedly loaded with weapons, munitions, two radio communications and three pharmaceutical sachets filled with cocaine. 

Officer Basha, a former member of Albanian Army, had also served in peace missions in Afghanistan. He became part of the special unit of Albanian police only six months back.

 “Today is a mourning day for Albanian police… and for every single Albanian,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said.

About 400 police officers, supported by two helicopters, are carrying out an operation in the region to arrest the perpetrators of the attack, police added.

Police and gunmen in the village have traded fire several times in the past. Since last year, police have confiscated tens of tones of cannabis sativa, from the area, which is a drug cultivated massively in the village.

Italian police estimate that drugs worth around €4.5 billion euros were produced from this Albanian village in 2013, which was later transported and sold mainly in Western Europe.