Italian police seize drugs from Albanians

ROME, April 27 (Reuter) Italian customs police said on Sunday they had
seized 638 kg (1,400 pounds) of marijuana from an Albanian motor boat that
landed near Santa Maria di Leuca on the southern Adriatic coast.

Saturday's find brought the amount of marijuana seized in 10 days along the
coast near Lecce, southern Italy, to almost 1.6 tonnes, police said.

The haul was the biggest on record in the area and the boat's crew was
arrested, they said.

Security has been stepped up to confront illegal immigrants from Albania,
where an Italianled multinational force has deployed to protect relief
deliveries after the country's slide towards anarchy.

Albania has rapidly emerged as a prime location for the cultivation and
smuggling of marijuana. The drugs are usually brought to Italy on motorboats
and motorised dinghies that cross the narrow Strait of Otranto with illegal
immigrants.

Signs that the pace of illegal emigration to Italy is picking up after a
relative lull increased on Sunday when a 30metre vessel with more than 100
people on board limped into the port of Barletta under coastguard escort.

Coastguards said the vessel, built to carry around 30 people, had apparently
set out from the small port of Shengjin in northern Albania. Several smaller
boats were also spotted or intercepted, police said.

Some 13,000 Albanians fled to Italy in decrepit boats in March at the height
of their country's turmoil. Most of the boats were from the main port of
Durres and from Vlore in the south. The Italianled force has deployed in
both ports.