Aerial surveillance and airborne remote sensing techniques in Guardia di Finanza: An operational experience: Guardia di Finanza and CRdC BENECON, police officers and university researchers to protect and safeguard social fairness and legality

On the basis of the Co-operation Agreement between Italy and Albania, which was signed in Tirana on 19th July 2007, a Guardia di Finanza and University researchers task force was carried out to locate and monitor cannabis plantations in the Albanian territory. This was due to the interest of both countries to reinforce their bilateral co-operation against organized crime and mainly to contrast drug trafficking. In addition, according to an operative Protocol, which was signed in Tirana on 16th May 2012, between the Italian Department of Public Safety within the Ministry of Internal Affairs - International Police Service Co-operation (Servizio Cooperazione Internazionale di Polizia) and the Albanian Police Headquarters, a new kind of aerial surveillance was introduced with the aid of military aircrafts in order to locate areas intended for the cultivation of cannabis in Albania. Guardia di Finanza air surveillance, enhanced with airborne remote sensing capability, was aimed at locating hidden areas through a scientific characterization of natural and anthropized environment with visible, thermal and hyperspectral analysis.