15 years in prison for Italian pilot in Albania

- A court in Albania has an Italian pilot Monday to 15 years in prison convicted of international drug trafficking. The verdict came two years after his plane during a landing on a beach on the Adriatic Sea in May 2014 and broke the nose wheel got stuck. The discovery of the crash of the Piper plane laid bare a new drug route between Italy and Albania.

Two other planes were seized in Italy. Drug traffickers appeared the small aircraft regularly use to smuggle cannabis between both countries.

The penalty against the Italian pilot was higher than that of five Albanian partners who were caught with hundreds of kilos of drugs near the stranded aircraft. The pilot rejected all accusations, his accomplices were given a reduced sentence because she pled guilty.