Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the presentation of facts and figures of the fight against drug trafficking:

First, I want to greet wholeheartedly all those of you that are here present, or who are at this moment we are talking engaged in the field of this historic battle for Albania. For what you’ve done this year is definitely one of the best marked success stories of this state and of the State Police.

You should be proud for destroying, as results, the undisputed facts and figures show, the amount of mud that has fallen on the State Police, on its leaders and the Minister of Interior for many months.

You should be proud because you served Albania, and the transformation of its image in an exemplary patriotic and historical way.

What the State Police has done in the last two years is definitely a historic milestone for the rule of law in Albania, for new positions between the state and crime, security and the prospect of other generations.

You are the majority, young enough to testify after a few years from now that these times in the history of the State Police are gone. You will undoubtedly be all proud to be part of this time that transformed the State Police from a betrayed, abandoned, dilapidated troop, into a force guarantor for order, a force on the side of the citizen, and a force deserving the respect of everyone.

There is no doubt that we are still in the process of transformation, and we are still working to consolidate the foundations of the new State Police.

Surely, there are still many faults, many problems and things that need to be addressed. But it is certain that if in 2013 there were in Albania 323 hectares planted with drugs, and in 2015 there are only 44 hectares, this is enough evidence of the certain historical turning point in the right direction of the State Police. It is certain evidence that any corrupt person, incriminated or wanted cannot anymore throw mud on the vast majority of this troop, which today has become the embodiment of the transformation we want in every sector in Albania.

I can imagine what it means for every one of you to chase after those ratholes we looked in the photos and destroy cannabis roots displaced from the center of the most remote areas of Albania, while hearing all sorts of accusations, all sorts of monstrosities and all sorts of verbal attacks on the Minister of Interior, the State Police leaders, the government itself in relation to crime and the whole content of the battle that makes get out of your homes every morning. It must be very tough. It must be very discouraging, and it must be also very difficult to not be tempted by doubts, such as maybe I, a police officer who together with my friends or with plenty of girls who have recently joined the Police state, are going to face certain death, or we are fighting with windmills, while our leaders, our minister, our government are not connected to but are leading this criminal activity.

One feels really deeply bad as Albanian hearing other Albanians, people with the power of having a microphone, people with the power of having a pencil, people with the power of having a window from where to convey information and take part collectively in this great muddying. While facts show that in the best of the cases that should at least keep silent. At least, they shouldn’t mess with the State Police, if their mouths cannot pronounce the right words to congratulate them, support them, encourage those men and women, boys and girls, who leave their homes every morning to accomplish a mission that until yesterday was impossible to be accomplished. Because, it is not only about the surface planted with drugs, which has become 8 times smaller in 2015 compared to 2013, but even more appalling is the difference between how many drugs have been destroyed from the amount planted in 2013, and how many of them have been destroyed this year, until last week when we closed the cycle of this plant that seems to be consumed all day long by those who totally lose their mind and attack the State Police and the Minister of Interior. Only 7% of the whole quantity planted at the center of the majlis was destroyed in 2013, while the most of it was destroyed in the last three months after we took office and declared this war. Meanwhile, there are 99.2% – and it is not the Minister of Interior, neither the State Police Director, or the government to give these figures, for we are “from head to toe connected with crime”, “we are not reliable when we talk about these figures” – these are the figures provided by Guardia di Finanza who had these aerial photographs in 2010, in 2011, and also in 2012 and 2013, and would show them to those whom the minister mentioned, but I don’t deign to name them today here in front of you. Because, in front of you they are nobody as interior ministers. And what would they do? They would “rest on their cannabis”, to say it in their language.

For those who know the history of universal war against drugs, for anyone who has the curiosity to read what has happened in other countries, there is a tragic coincidence between the quantity of outputs and amount of mud.

The more countries, different police forces across the globe, their leaders, ministers, and presidents have tried to fight a tooth for a tooth with this criminal industry, the greater has become the amount of mud in the media, in parliaments. Why? Is it just a political issue? There are plenty of other ways to make a political battle. It is not us, and there is no government in the world to be perfect to the point that the opposition has to invent and slander every day to build its fable. There are many. This is not just political, because the figures exposed by this operation are about roots, hectares and drug amounts translated into Euros. There are billions! Billions that until yesterday went somewhere that don’t go anymore today. This is an operation that has affected colossal interests. If we followed the logic of opposition and would create the same fable, because it has become fashionable here in Albania, and I fully understand our friends and partners who have embraced this fashion, which is in fact a comfortable fashion according to which “all are equal, both parties are to blame, both sides have many reasons to feel bad in front of the Albanian people” and so on, but I am not dwelling into this. This kind of fashion has disgusted me since long ago, and it will continue to disgust me. What I was saying is that if we follow this line of reasoning, what should we say about the Interior Ministers who preach today as if they were the anti-drug angels fallen from the haven of virtues?

Why have they slept on all these maps? Why did they do nothing in 2013, in 2012, in 2011, in 2010, to react and uproot this cancer from Albania’s body? In their logic, they were from head to toes connected to the industry of such criminal activity. From head to toes! In their logic they have benefited millions and billions. In their logic they should be today the first to give account for the colossal and multifaceted damage caused to Albania, because they have never responded to the repeated requests of the Italian Guardia di Finanza in front of the facts and figures that would show Albania covered with drugs. But, it’s their logic.

The only one faith that keeps me going in this battle, beyond conferences, beyond meetings and congresses, beyond the media, newspapers and screens, beyond languages and pencils, is a people who is really smart. I trust very much this people who is a spectator of this absurd theatre where police is fighting as never before against crime, drugs, corruption, and who has been accused as never before, not only by the opposition but also by a number of segments connected with each other, and who are very much concerned also about informality, the establishment of the rule of law in the distribution of electricity, who are very much concerned about the ban on illegal constructions in a territory that until two years ago was “occupied land” for anyone who would only and simply use the brutal anti law force. They are also concerned about the closed universities that used to fabricate degrees for enormous sums of money from which, according to the logic of the opposition, would benefit not just the owners of universities.

I believe that today we are at a very important moment. We have only one task, to not listen to any of those who trying to throw mud and put the biggest obstacles, hitting where it hurts the most, the violation of human dignity, where the attack is harder, kicking the human moral image, where corrupt castes have always aimed at “We are all the same.” “We are all connected to crime.” “We are all immersed in drugs.” “We are all to be thrown away.” Because if this perception wins, it is always the party that has less right that wins. It has been historically proven that mud machines were built for this and they function this way. That’s why mud industries are intensive whenever a government undertakes to hit where interests are built and where illicit money is generated.

But since you have a long experience in this regard, and you realize over time that it is useless to listen to them, because the more you listen to them the more you get hurt and discouraged, do not listen to them.

Feel proud of everything you have done. I will give you just one example, among many, so that you will feel at peace. There was one criminal, one of those whom the State Police, the Reborn State Police had the courage to identify in its body and wash out from its body, an associate of drug smugglers who would reveal police operations, has become today the hero of the opposition, of the media, and even of the head of state lately. The hero! The hero that claims answer while being wanted. The hero that does not appear in the prosecutor’s office and face charges upon him, but has applied for political asylum in another country, after breaching the court’s decision on subpoena. That is enough to understand how this market has fallen down. That is enough to understand how low has this business become. That is enough to understand how desperate “the mud industry” actually is.

Meanwhile, everything that was displayed today fortunately for this moment – but unfortunately for us as a people, as a country – received the stamp of two friends, two partners and two ambassadors directly involved on behalf of their countries in this effort. I do not believe that they will stand up and say that everything was a lie, and I hope they will not include the US Ambassador in the law on decriminalization.

Thank you!