TIRANA, Albania — An Albanian appeals court has reduced the jail sentence for the grandson of the country’s late communist dictator and three other associates after they admitted trafficking cocaine from Latin America to Western Europe. The Tirana Appeals Serious Crime Court on Wednesday agreed to lower by one-third the 10-year sentence for Ermal Hoxha and three others who accepted the drug-trafficking charges and the evidence. Hoxha, 42, and the others were arrested in January 2015 after police seized about 120 kilograms (265 pounds) of cocaine, cash and weapons at their base not far from the capital, Tirana. Hoxha is the eldest grandson of Enver Hoxha, who governed Albania with an iron fist from 1944 until his death in 1985 — five years before a student revolt overthrew the isolationist communist regime.

Source: National Post November 15, 2017 15:00 UTC