Timing, they say, is everything. Last Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a stop in Albania. He did so while journeying to the Munich Security Conference in Germany. While in the capital Tirana, Blinken held a joint press conference with Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama. America’s top diplomat hailed our NATO ally as an “extraordinary” American partner, praising Albania’s support to Ukraine, assistance to refugees from our recent defeat in Afghanistan, plus “a shared approach to countering dangerous distortions and lies and build a resilient information ecosystem” (whatever that means). ...

On planet Earth, the decade-plus of Rama’s rule has seen little Albania become a major global drug smuggling hub as well as the sole narco state in Europe. Under Socialist governance, Albanian criminals have gone global, spreading their tentacles around the world. Wherever Albanian gangsters go, violence and mayhem follow, most recently in Ecuador. This is no secret. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide are fully aware of how alarmingly Albania punches above its weight in organized crime on several continents.