Ownership as documented
not publicly documented here
Description
Investigative outlet. Its 'The EU Files' piece (Nov 2025) describes Albanian groups in Europe and state links, with allegations attributed to named sources.
Contracts and money
Figures recorded for the cases linked to this organisation. A figure here is not necessarily paid to or by this organisation; check payer and payee.
Guardia di Finanza aerial estimate: Lazarat-area cannabis 2013 (319 ha; over 1,000 t)
€4,000,000,000
otherSource label: UnverifiedStated definition: Estimate of market value from aerial imagery (per Italian financial police as reported). Not a measured sales figure.
Date: 2013 · Payer: not applicable · Payee: not applicable
- Gangs based in Lazarat produce about 900 metric tons of cannabis a year (AP, June 2014) (opens in a new tab)AP / Fox News · Jun 2014 · journalism · EN
Guardia di Finanza estimate: Lazarat ~900 t a year, value EUR 4.5bn (2014)
€4,500,000,000
otherSource label: UnverifiedStated definition: Estimate; about half of Albania's GDP per the same reporting. Not measured.
Date: Jun 2014 · Payer: not applicable · Payee: not applicable
- Amid heavy gunfire, Albanian police battle to restore law to farming village turned pot empire (opens in a new tab)AP / Fox News · Jun 2014 · journalism · EN
Interior Ministry: market value of cannabis destroyed in 2014 (national)
€6,400,000,000
seizureSource label: Officially reportedStated definition: Official claim of market value of seized and destroyed cannabis nationally, more than 60% of GDP (per officials). Value method not published.
Date: 2014 · Payer: not applicable · Payee: not applicable
- 6.4 billion EUR of drugs seized in 2014 (opens in a new tab)Top Channel · unknown · journalism · EN
Cash seized at Durres port (two Toyota Yaris), 2018
€3,400,000
seizureSource label: Officially reportedStated definition: Police seizure; court ordered confiscation to the state. Source of cash not established in the sources reviewed.
Date: 24 Jun 2018 · Payer: unknown · Payee: state (confiscation)
- Apeli i GJKKO konfiskon 3.4 mln eurot e Toyota Yaris i kalojne shtetit (opens in a new tab)Shqiptarja · 24 Jun 2018 · journalism · SQ
Officials and people linked
No person is linked to this organisation in the research.
Investigations and cases
Sorted by reported money, then by linked people and their legal status. The money figure is the largest single reported figure, not a total.
From 2013
Lazarat cannabis economy and the 2014 police raid
Lazarat, a village in southern Albania (Vlora region), became the centre of a cannabis economy in the 2010s. Italian financial police (Guardia di Finanza) used aerial photographs to estimate output…
Status: Historic. Cultivation shifted, reduced, and recorded as 'considerably lower' outdoors by 2022 (EUDA). Several local figures remain disputed.
From 2013
Saimir Tahiri: Interior Minister, abuse-of-office conviction
Tahiri was Interior Minister in the period of the Lazarat crackdown. Opposition figures and a former police inspector say he protected a car and drug links. FTM reports that Italian investigators…
Status: Convicted of abuse of office at first instance; appeal reported as pending in one source. Status to be checked on the court record.
Sources for this record
Every source the research cites for this record, grouped by its source label. 1 source.
Source label: Under investigationUnder investigation · 1 source
- Publisher
- Follow the Money
- Date
- 6 Nov 2025