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Europe
Read the rest in the link.
My first instinct was: LOL.
But after reading the whole thing... it hit too close to home. While I don't consider marijuana to be really all that bad, and wouldn't mind decriminalization and legalization, this is a HUGE illegal operation.
An outlaw Albanian village has built a fortune from the cultivation of cannabis worth as much as half the country’s GDP, and it’s off-limits to the police.
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.”
The annual crop earns almost $6 billion, according to the Italian financial police.
Although local police dispute that figure, they admit that marijuana production is booming.
Last year’s raid didn’t last long. When officers began cutting down cannabis plants, 15 SUVs mounted with heavy machine guns materialized and started firing.
“We were drawing indiscriminate fire from 20 positions, including heavy machine guns and anti-tank missiles,” the commissioner said. “I saw a 70-year-old grandmother shooting at us with a heavy machine gun. I thought I was going to die.”
As Albania’s economy has slumped in the last few years thanks to the economic crises in neighboring Greece and Italy, Lazarat has prospered.
Intelligence reports suggest the village cultivated more than 60 acres of land this year, an estimated 300,000 plants that could yield as much 500 tons of marijuana.
Read the rest in the link.
My first instinct was: LOL.
But after reading the whole thing... it hit too close to home. While I don't consider marijuana to be really all that bad, and wouldn't mind decriminalization and legalization, this is a HUGE illegal operation.