A huge plume of marijuana smoke is hovering over an Albanian town after a police crackdown on its notorious drug trade.
Heavily armed police were pelted with gunfire, grenades and even mortars as they tried to rid the town of Lazarat, Europe's biggest producer of marijuana, of its main crop, the Associated Press reports.
The hills of the village in the country's south yields around 900 tons of cannabis a year, worth close to $6.5 billion – or nearly half the small country's GDP.
The operation in the village, population 5000, is in its fifth day has seen the destruction of 80,000 plants and more than 12.8 tons of cannabis while 80 houses have been searched.
Residents have reportedly seen the events unfold on live television, burning their own crops as authorities close in.
"What did I do wrong? I just wanted five plants like everybody else," Lumturi Koli, a 42-year-old widower, told Reuters.
"I should have been first to plant them because I have to care for my children."
While thirteen people have been arrested for drug offences and firing on police, miraculously no-one has been killed despite long blasts of gunfire.
Four have been slightly wounded, including two shepherds who were hit by stray rounds.
The raids have been part of an overhaul push by Albania and its new Socialist government to gain entry into the European Union.
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Heavily armed police were pelted with gunfire, grenades and even mortars 
People living in small towns have guns, grenades and mortars? So they really are protecting their plantations!
"What did I do wrong? I just wanted five plants like everybody else," Lumturi Koli, a 42-year-old widower, told Reuters.
"I should have been first to plant them because I have to care for my children."
Sheesh, what happened to using land for growing food crops and keeping goats and chickens?
@durruticolumna wrote:
Albania is a very poor country.I doubt very much they have the same social services/security that we have.
They do have beautiful sheep though:D
Probably true re their social services, not sure about their sheep as I've never set eyes on them.
Not sure what either has to do with the topic, though. 
Such a waste......
They could have kept it for those in medical need.......
Perhaps if the government could export it legally.......Albania could become a very wealthy country........
@siggie-reported-by-alarmists wrote:Such a waste......
They could have kept it for those in medical need.......
Perhaps if the government could export it legally.......Albania could become a very wealthy country........
There's something disturbing about mind-altering substance crops being cultivated so ppl can put food on their table, rather than actually growing food.
Reminds of how they plowed orchard of oranges and plums into the ground in the Hawkesbury region here in NSW and turned them into turf farms.
More grass lol.
