TIRANA: Albanian police say they have seized 4.2 metric tons of cannabis in a storage building where 31 people were employed to process the drug.

A statement Friday said some 100 police raided the area near Rreshen, 75 kilometres (45 miles) north of the capital, Tirana, earlier this week.

Twenty-two men found at the place where cannabis was dried were arrested while nine women were allowed to go but will also face charges of involvement in illegal drug-trafficking that carries a sentence of up to eight years' imprisonment.

After destroying about 2.5 million cannabis plants during the summer — four times more than all of 2015 —police are now carrying out raids to find harvested plants that are being processed. Several metric tons were found in October around the country.