Major Marijuana Seizure In Albania

[From article]
Albania's private A1 channel said its TV crew covering the Lazarat operation was robbed at gunpoint by masked men who also burnt their vehicle.
On the second day of operations Tuesday, police numbers were reinforced to 800 and officers took control of about a quarter of the village, seizing 'considerable quantities' of marijuana and ammunition, as well as drug-processing machinery.
Amid near-continuous gunfire, they also destroyed 11,000 cannabis plants, and were planning to gingerly advance into gang-defended areas.
Marijuana-growing gangs in the village have long seen themselves as beyond the reach of the law. In 2004, shots from the village forced an Italian drug-spotting helicopter to make a hasty retreat.
Until ten years ago, Lazarat was a regular farming community.
Now the village in southern Albania is Europe's biggest illegal marijuana producer, raking in billions of euros every year from the plants openly cultivated in fields and house gardens.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2658903/Albanian-police-storm-lawless-marijuana-village.html

The day Europe's 'Marijuana Mecca' went up in smoke: How Albanian drug dealers torched £3.bn (or half the country's GDP) of cannabis in tiny village to destroy the evidence
Hundreds of Albanian police, backed by armored vehicles, stormed lawless southern village of Lazrat
marijuana growers allegedly fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machine guns at officers during a drug raid
Gangs based in Lazarat are believed to produce about 900 metric tons of cannabis a year
By JILL REILLY
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 14:00 EST, 16 June 2014 | UPDATED: 05:42 EST, 18 June 2014