The Prosecution for Serious Crimes demanded 8 years in jail for a senior Police officer in Tepelena accused of involvement in marijuana cultivation.
According to the prosecution, the defendant Gani Abazi, the former chief of the specialists of the Tepelena Commissariat, is accused of maintaining telephone contact with marijuana growers. Abazi is being tried under the security measure of "house arrest" and is expected that the Court will be pronounced after the Prosecution's pretense.About three other persons accused, in the same process, "criminal group" and "marijuana cultivation" in some areas in southern Albania, a total of 25 years in prison were demanded. The defendants of this trial convicted by Serious Crimes were arrested in February 2017, during an operation where a total of 1.7 tons of marijuana was seized. Investigations included several Tepelena villages where some areas were cultivated with narcotic plants and police officers are suspected as collaborating with marijuana financiers and growers.
According to police data during 2016 about 30% of the quantity of narcotics discovered at country level was cultivated in the Region of Gjirokastra.