GJIROKASTRA, Albania — The last time police tried to enter the mountainside village of Lazarat near this historic southern city last summer, they prompted a ferocious firefight a local police commissioner describes as “very much like a real war.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of being ostracized, he said he was part of a special forces operation during which sniper units occupied high ground as SWAT teams moved in to arrest a handful of people working in fields surrounding the village.
They were no ordinary fields: Lazarat is known as Albania’s drug capital, notorious for its cannabis and lawlessness.
The annual crop earns almost $6 billion, according to the Italian financial police.
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