Greek drug agents fight uphill battle on border smuggling

By Christine Pirovolakis Mar 20, 2007, 13:04 GMT

Ioannina, Greece - Sitting in an unmarked car a few metres away from the Greek-Albanian border, the head of Ioannina's narcotics police spots a driver behind the wheel of a silver Mercedes moving past customs officials at the entry point at Kakavia.

Speaking into his two-way radio he alerts his fellow anti-drug officers stationed nearby to move into action.

'We have received a tip from one of our informants that something big will be coming through here from Albania in the next few days so we are not taking any chances,' says the Greek officer, who asked that his identity be withheld.

Within a matter of seconds, drug officials begin tailing the foreign-plated Mercedes through the remote mountainous hills of north-western Greece and quickly close in on the suspect as he approaches a roadblock on the outskirts of the city of Ioannina.

Forcing the car to the side of the road, drug officers armed with hand-guns and sporting bullet-proof vests, order the man out of the vehicle and sniffer dogs are immediately called in to conduct a thorough search.

'Every day there is a huge line of cars at the Greek-Albania crossing point - this makes it almost impossible for customs officials to do a proper check of all the cars coming into Greece because people are constantly finding new ways to hide drugs - so this is where we take over,' says the narcotics agent, who often goes undercover as a buyer.

With a 125-kilometre border that continues to be difficult to patrol, Albania, with its poverty, anarchy and hard-to-reach hills has flourished in recent years into one of the biggest exporters of drugs, mainly cannabis, into Greece and the rest of Europe.

Given its geographical position, Greece lies at the crossroads between countries that produce illegal substances and the markets that consume them.

'Large quantities of cannabis are smuggled every year into Greece and Italy from Albania which over recent years has become a major source country,' says Athanasios Palaiopanos, Ioannina police chief. 'Trafficking is controlled by Albanian organized crime groups that co-operate closely with Greek nationals.'

In 2005, Greek law enforcement agencies seized 8 tons of cannabis, up from 4.2 tons the year before, the majority of which originated in Albania.

Cannabis is normally transported by foot or vehicle from Albania to Greece across the border through unguarded or steep paths or by speedboat. There have also been cases where drug smugglers used donkeys without riders to transport goods across the border.

'We just had a recent case where we confiscated 120 kilos of cannabis which was transported using mules from Albania over a mountain into Greece. The mules made their way to a remote area where the drug smugglers were waiting to unload the goods,' says the narcotics agent, who is responsible for monitoring five main points along the border.

Apart from cannabis, both Greece and Italy are increasingly affected by the trafficking of heroin which enters the country via Albania or from the Evros area in north-eastern Greece.

'Greece forms part of a southern Balkan axis and this is one of the main axes for transporting heroin from Afghanistan and other Asian opium producers to Europe. The drugs reach Turkey, then Greece and Italy where they are distributed to other European countries,' said Palaiopanos.

'The drugs are purchased cheaply in Turkey and the profits to be made are huge.'

Greek authorities insist that many parts of Albania, which are either beyond the control of authorities or are embedded with corruption, serve as an easy access route for heroin to make its way from Turkey and then for it to be transported into Greece.

Situated just 15 minutes from the Greek-Albanian border, the remote southern Albanian village of Lazarat is known as a drug traffickers' haven despite a recent clamping down on cannabis cultivation by Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

Lazarat residents have become beholden to smugglers whose activities pump cash into the community, and in 2004 villagers reportedly shot at an Italian drug-spotting helicopter as it tried to photograph marijuana fields.

'The drug smugglers own the place and walk around the town with automatic machine guns. For many years the area was a no-go zone for Albanian police and in many ways still is,' says another undercover officer.

'These drug trafficking rings are big and the village is only a stone's throw away from the Greek border,' he adds.

While Greek and Albanian police chiefs have met on several occasions to discuss issues concerning organized crime as well as drugs and arms' trafficking, the problem will likely not fade unless Albania commits itself to meeting European Union regulations.

'In almost every case the drug smuggler that we encounter, whether he enters the country on foot or by car, will be armed with either a rifle or a hand grenade,' says the head of the narcotics police.

'In many cases, drug traffickers are more afraid of being killed and having their stuff taken away than being caught by police,' he says.

'It seems dirt can only be fought with dirt.'