Empty Promises: How Albania’s Political Transitions Led Them To Involvement In Transnational Drug Trades

By Grace Dollia

Albania has a complex history that spans a variety of cultural, economic, and political structures. Though Albania is about to reach three decades of democratic freedom from the strict communist regime run by Enver Hoxha, the country’s poor infrastructure and lack of political support have contributed to a continued weakened economic state¹. The Albanian government’s informal strategies in supporting its citizens after the collapse of the communist party in 1991, as well as the corrupt attitudes of law enforcement, have contributed to the emergence of organized drug-related crime activity throughout the country. Not only is organized drug-related crime in Albania a result of the irreversible damage evoked by Hoxha’s administration, but it has persisted due to the corruption exhibited by the current administration. After being previously ruled under Hoxha’s totalitarian policies and strict criminal policy, the leaders of the new Democratic Party in 1991 failed to facilitate the institutions and policies required for the country’s transition to a market economy.

There are several factors about Albanian political, social, and economic structures that conjoin to concoct a ripe environment for black market activity to run rampant. The drastic shift in the Albanian government in the early 1990’s exposed the country to new markets on the global scale for the first time in decades. Before 1990, Albania had an extremely centralized economic model, especially in matters of foreign trade. In fact, all transnational communications were monopolized by the government and performed directly through the country’s Ministry of Foreign Trade². This trade and any possibility of foreign connection was so monitored that Hoxha included an amendment to the country’s constitution¹ that forbid any sort of trading and borrowing from the capitalist countries of the western world. This prohibition clearly set Albania at a stark disadvantage when it re-entered the global business arena after the collapse of Hoxha’s regime.

The new Democratic party attempted to solve the previously established issues through a series of economic reforms. The Ministry of Foreign Trade as it existed under Hoxha’s administration was abolished. In its place, business transactions were significantly less centralized as new governmental departments were consciously constructed to oversee the new markets³. For instance, the Ministry of Domestic Trade was re-focused to support production of rural goods by the country’s middle and lower classes who ultimately provided for 85% of the country’s capital through their agricultural products and services³. Though these initiatives were well-intended, they were neither supported nor extremely enforced with sufficiency. Price controls were not eliminated from necessities, and supply chain lines from foreign countries were easily infiltrated. This lax governmental action and interference with the country’s food supply extended into intense hunger that motivated people to find quick methods to earn cash and support themselves. Lack of supervision of these markets resulted in many citizens struggling to support themselves relying on black markets, such as the drug trade, for the fulfillment of their basic needs and potential for financial success.

The poor education and experience of the newest leaders to guide a developing country during a time of sudden globalization also led to the prevalence of the illegal drug trade in the country. The new leaders were not equipped with the knowledge needed to properly mitigate the illicit activity that naturally followed as a result of the country opening its borders to the rest of the world, as other stipulations under Hoxha’s regime included harsh barriers towards education. Albania’s geographic space as an Eastern European country allowed black market activity to thrive as citizens began immigrating. This meant that for the first time there were Albanians on both the supply and demand sides of the globalized drug trade. Proximally, Albania is sandwiched between the supply countries in the East like Turkey and Afghanistan, and the consumer countries in Western Europe⁴. The lack of regulation and lawlessness of the new Albanian government to oversee or punish any illegal activity then occurring only exacerbated the prime opportunistic geographic position many Albanians were now able to take advantage of.

In addition to the lawlessness exhibited by the new Albanian administration, the emphasis on familial and community connections as the nation adapted to globalization was a key determinant of the growth of black market activity. Additionally, this spread was insufficiently monitored by the newest leaders. A report from the European Union analyzing black market activity in Albania from 1990 to 2005 discovered that every single Albanian mafia or organized crime group in the global drug trade could be traced back to approximately six family or close social groups that expanded over time as the trade strengthened⁵. The same report pinpointed that the origins of most of these groups could be traced back to two cities, the port town of Dürres and the centralized location of Lushnje⁵. The drug trade is able to pass through Dürres because of its advantage as a coastal city, thereby making it a prime position for groups to utilize as a check-in point and divert smuggled drugs away from the trail of the Albanian government. Of course, this was in the rare case that the government did provide the effort to track the trade. However, the Albanian courts determined that those involved in Dürres were not integrated into the trade enough to be considered their own organized crime group, but rather, used the strength of their connections to assist others involved in the drug trade and allowed it to flourish in the region⁵. This differs slightly from the organization model adopted by groups in Lushnje who operated under a vertical hierarchy and reported back through many degrees of authority to complete tasks determined by the leaders of these drug operations. Though they differed in strategy, Albanians in both Dürres and Lushnje relied upon the importance of the strength in their social connections in order to allow for growth of the drug trade, using the country as an integral check-in point.

As social ties and trust were fortified between the original Albanian members, the next natural step for these groups was to expand by conjoining with forces in other countries to increase the Albanian influence in the growing globalized drug trade. In fact, Europol, a law enforcement agency powered by the European Union, discovered that Albanian groups served as facilitators and “service providers” for at least eleven other organized crime groups in the world, including the assistance that stemmed from both Dürres and Lushnje⁴. The rapid expansion of the Albanian presence in the global illegal drug trade highlights how the strength of motivated social groups in the country overruled the lax leadership of the newest administration.

The failure of this administration after the country’s transition from a communist regime to a free-market economy created the ideal conditions for black market activity to blossom transnationally, and this is a trend that has continued to persist in the current decade. Though the country is roughly the same petite size as Hawaii, it has grown to be the largest producer of marijuana in all of Europe. In fact, law enforcement infiltrated a combined total of $680 million value in 2017 alone⁶. Cocaine is also often smuggled through many of Albania’s various ports such as Dürres and the nearby beach town of Vlora, where police discovered approximately 613 kg of the drug hidden in a shipment of bananas as recently as 2018⁷. And though these numbers seem staggering, they still do not form the most complete picture of the extent of the drug trade that perseveres in Albania. Government agents admit that they believe they only successfully infiltrate about five percent of the drug shipments that are in the country as they transition from the suppliers of the east and consumers of the west⁵.

There are several recurring themes that express themselves in the presence of most globalized black markets that worked in conjunction to allow the illegal drug trade to prosper in Albania after 1991. This includes the desire for stability during a time of political and economic transformation, as exemplified by the shift from a harsh and long-lasting authoritarian government to a much more lax and liberalized one. This is also represented by the emphasis of familial and social ties to create trust, and the rapid growth and expansion of these markets with increasing globalization. The lawfulness performed by the transitional government leaders worked simultaneously with these common motifs involved in black market activity to contribute to the drug trade where Albania functioned as a base. Unfortunately, the impacts of these actions still persist. The most recent 2019 EU Drug Markets report still cited Albania as a prominent origin site for the trade of many illegal drugs including cocaine, heroin, and marijuana⁷. The long-lasting implications of the Albanian drug market that are observed today combine with the social and cultural sets of actions that prevailed due to the uncertainty and lack of leadership as power was transferred in the country in 1991, which overall describe the arrival of a tenacious drug black market community.

Notes

1. Muço, M. (june 1997). Economic Transition In Albania: Political Constraints and Mentality Barriers (Publication). Tirana, Albania: NATO Individual Fellowship Program.
2. Raymond Zickel and Walter R. Iwaskiw, editors. Albania: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1994.
3. Costa, A. M. (march 2008). Crime And Its Impact On The Balkans And Affected Countries (Rep.). United Nations Office On Drug And Crimes.
4. Zhilla, Fabian and Lamallari, Besfort. “Albanian Criminal Groups.” Trends in Organized Crime, vol. 18, no. 4, Dec. 2015, pp. 329–347. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s12117-015-9253-0.
5. Interview: [Name redacted for confidentiality, member of Albania’s judiciary branch]
6. Reed, M. (2019, June 06). The Inside Story of Europe’s First Narco-State. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmpq89/the-inside-story-of-europes-first-narco-state
7. Daragahi, B. (2019, January 28). How Albania became the ‘Colombia of Europe’. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/albania-drug-cannabis-trafficking-hub-europe-adriatic-sea-a8747036.html
8. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and Europol (2019), EU Drug Markets Report 2019, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.