The event focused on the regional demonstration of police dogs’ narcotics and firearms detection capabilities.

Balla appreciated the activity as very important within the many activities that the Ministry of Interior and OSCE organize together.

“I believe that this activity will enable the intensification and consolidation of cooperation between the K9 corps in the Western Balkans and the creation of a platform for the exchange of best practices in this regard, which play a primary role in law enforcement and security, the detection of crime and above all for increasing the trust of the communities towards the police”, said Balla in his speech.

“Today, more than ever, security is one of our biggest priorities in each of the countries of the Western Balkans, and here illegal weapons always pose a serious threat to public safety, to the stability and progress of our region. In this context, the capacities of K9 and well-trained police dogs play an irreplaceable role in the daily, systematic fight against arms trafficking and other criminal activities”, he emphasized.

We, continued Balla, “have in Albania an Institute for the training of Police Dogs, this loyal animal of man, which has assisted and continues to assist the law enforcement units regularly as a precious asset, even wearing badges that say “Police”. So, they are part of the daily work of the State Police”.

“Let’s never forget that well-trained dogs are used not only to detect weapons hidden in dashboards, in car seats, in hidden places, but a wider range of objects and phenomena; let’s not forget that we use police dogs to detect drugs, to detect explosives, undeclared “cash”, and especially when we have natural disasters and we have to use dogs to find people and not forgetting to neutralize armed persons or track them down.

As soon as I received the invitation for this activity, I immediately confirmed the participation because we want to make a further promotion here, to another level of the Institute, because well-trained dogs are, as it happens in many countries of the world, a very useful unit, in many aspects, including the rescue services”, said Balla.

Balla also focused on the essence of the project for the fight and the daily attack on the phenomenon of illegal possession of weapons as one of the main tasks of the State Police.

The minister informed that from the police data it appears that the phenomenon of carrying weapons still has a large scope and presence in many areas of the country.

“In the last 300 days, the State Police has conducted an important operation against the phenomenon of illegal possession of weapons, such as the “Rule of Law” and has seized several hundred firearms and a greater number of cold weapon. So, such a thing confirms to us that we have a large distribution and presence of small and light weapons among the citizens,” stressed Balla.

In this regional activity, there were also presented the K9 units, or otherwise, the trained police dogs of the countries of the region which demonstrated their abilities in tracking, sniffing narcotics, explosives, etc./p.s./