Arrest of Albanian official accused of drug smuggling sparks uproar

The arrest of a senior Albanian government official suspected of using his status to smuggle drugs across the border continues to cause a stir.

Erisa Fero, who serves as the country’s top intelligence agency’s IT director, was “arrested on December 29 in a remote, mountainous part of Albania near the border with North Macedonia, allegedly while she was transporting 58 kg of cannabis.”

“Albanian police said Fero used her official government security ID to avoid police checks and searches. Also arrested during the arrest were Fero’s reported romantic partner, Leke Basha, 30, and a 17-year-old suspect on drug trafficking offences. Two suspects on the North Macedonian side of the border who are believed to have received the drugs have escaped after a long manhunt, according to police,” VICE reported, citing local media as noting that “police suspect those involved in arrested after the incident, including Fero, for having links to organized crime gangs.”

Apparently it’s not the first time that Fero, 28, has been embroiled in a scandal.

According to the Greek City Times, in December 2021, Fero “along with 21 other commissioners was reported to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) for illegality” when she was “a member of a vote-counting committee in a constituency.”

“However, the voting results were falsified in the commission she participated in, and the relevant committee filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office in Tirana against 21 commissioners, including Fero,” the outlet reported. “The young woman was accused of taking part in the rigging of the April 25, 2021 elections, removing or adding votes in favor of candidates from different parties.”

Recreational and medicinal cannabis are prohibited in Albania.

According to law firm CMS, in 2000 Albania “joined the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, an international treaty prohibiting the use, manufacture and trafficking of listed narcotics except for medical treatment and research,” although “this is part of the agreement on the medical use of cannabis has not been enforced by Albania.”

“In 1994 the Albanian government enacted the ‘Law on Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances’ and cannabis was included in the list of controlled drugs. On January 27, 1995, the Criminal Code of the Republic of Albania was created, prohibiting the use, manufacture and trafficking of narcotics. Cannabis is not specifically listed, but the government has made it clear that it falls within the definition of a narcotic,” explains CMS. “According to Article 283 of the Criminal Code, the sale, offering for sale, giving or receiving in any form, distribution, trading, transporting, sending, delivering and storing of narcotic and psychotropic substances and seeds of narcotic plants is contrary to the law (except where it is for personal use and in small doses) shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of five to ten years.”

The arrest of a senior government official – as well as a person with alleged links to organized crime – comes at a bad time politically for Albania.

As VICE noted in its report, Fero’s arrest came “as NATO member Albania is pushing for a deeper relationship with the EU, including possible future membership.”

“Albania and other countries, including Bulgaria and Romania, have made significant progress in fighting local organized crime and corruption in cooperation with the EU and NATO,” said a senior EU security official. “But this incident shows how difficult it is to fight corruption in a clientelist environment like Albania.”

VICE reported that the officer “said with access to internal IT and information systems that Fero’s suspected criminal connections could result in a high risk of information being leaked to criminal gangs or hostile intelligence agencies.”