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The long tentacles of drug trafficking in Greece

22 December 2010 / 17:12:29  GRReporter
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Police officers, jailers, doctors, lawyers, nurses and cleaners are the participants in the group of the 69 with "main activity" in recent months sale of drugs and mobile phones in most Greek prisons.

The criminal group was uncovered after a months-long investigation by the internal affairs department at the Greek police, in which a significant role has played the ‘super’ bug of the National Information Service. Indicative of the scale and scope of the group is the fact that the police needed more than 3900 pages to describe the activity of the 69 involved in the criminal network that acted from Crete to Corfu.

The beginning of the end began after imprisoned in Corfu made a complaint in which he described how drugs and mobile phones were delivered to the interim police station, where convicts are kept before being sent to prison. The 35-year-old prisoner even appointed an Albanian from the prison in Larissa as the leader of the network. The interim police station was in the centre of the action of the network where the participating officers handed out drugs in packs of 100 or 200 grams to detainees to swallow them. In this way the traffic could not be easily detected.

Here are the 69 members of the network:

- 61 individuals, 21of whom prisoners

- A policeman from the interim police station under suspending procedure

- Three jailers from the psychiatric wing of the court prison in Korydallos

- A psychiatrist

- A lawyer

- A nurse from Ptolemaida Hospital

- A cleaner of the interim police station in Athens

The policeman, who is to be suspended from office forever, was captured in late October at the time when he gave a drug quantity to a prisoner - a drug addict in custody in the interim police station in Athens and since then he has been detained in prison in Korydallos.

The criminal network has acted in most Greek prisons: in Korydallos, Larissa, Trikala, Domokos, Malandrino, Kerkira, Patras and Alikarnasos. Its members were so organized that they had safe to collect and allocate the revenue. Furthermore, the decoding of their telephone conversations made it clear that they used codes to communicate. The file on the case was sent to the Prosecutor of the marginal court in Athens.

The Coast Guard at the port of Igoumenitsa captured late last night a 44 year old foreigner after having found two bags filled with various kinds of drugs in his truck. The officers found 57 packages of drugs. Unprocessed Indian cannabis was found in 47 of them, weighing 47 kg and 988 g and heroin and morphine in the other 10, weighing 5 kg and 478 g. The driver was arrested and the drugs and the truck were seized by the Coast Guard in Igoumenitsa.

Meanwhile, it became clear that the names of a very famous model, a music producer and a person of family relations with politicians were found in the list of customers of the criminal network for drugs trafficking. Its members were importing drugs from Canada, distributing them in the regions of Attica, Arcadia and Crete. That list contains the names of a music house senior, owner of commercial representation for the sale of yachts and a businessman - supplier of medical equipment. Another 50 names from the show business, models and media employees have been customers of the network, which has sold large quantities of cocaine, ecstasy pills and hydroponics cannabis. The group was broken up by the police department to fight drugs in Attica with the help of the information provided by the US agency DEA.

A list with the names of 30 people the mobile phones of which were used to contact members of the network ‘got out’ of the police. According to the authorities, not all of them are expected be charged but all will be questioned for additional information.

The Greek police seized eight Greeks aged 30-42 years involved in the criminal network. One of them is from Canada and the police believe he is the leader of the group, the other is from USA and the third is from France. They were importing the drugs from Canada through containers carrying spare parts for cars.

The police conducted the operation in Athens and Astros Kinurias last week, the majority of seizures being watched for several months. The 37-year-old alleged coordinator of the group was a car merchant; he acted as a real estate agent and had a luxury Porsche. Among many other things, the police discovered that he owns shares worth 1 million euros.

The investigation began after the DEA office at the USA embassy in Athens informed the Greek police that a Canadian citizen of Greek origin is probably involved in trafficking cocaine to Greece.

The police officers found the suspect and began to follow him. Gradually they found his partners, his contacts with other persons and places they used for hiding the drugs.

The chief of the group was captured last Friday when he sold drugs to a ‘customer’ of his. Then the other members of the network were captured. During the investigation the police have found information about dozens of persons who purchased various quantities of drugs. Found in total are:

- 2392 grams of cocaine

- 18,444 g hydroponics cannabis

- 6895 pills of ecstasy

- 2 kg of dynamite

- 2 detonators

- Slow fuse, 110 cm long

- 1 M16 gun

- 2 9 mm guns

- 75 9 mm cartridges

- Amounts of 251,270 euros, 10,000 US dollars, savings books with amounts of 38,339.32 euros and 56,358.64 Canadian dollars, 83,351 US dollars and 18 credit cards of Greek and foreign banks

- 7 precision scales

- 5 cars

- 3 motorcycles

- 1 fake Greek passport

- 1 fake driving license

- 1 fake international car registration card

- 1 fake ID card

- 24 mobile phones

According to the police, the large amounts and shares found and the fact that some of the captured were engaged in property deals make them believe that the network has laundered money earned from criminal activities. For this reason, part of the documentation on the case was sent to the drugs and arms department at the office for financial crimes.

The network members telephone conversations tracing revealed that when their known and unknown customers have ordered various types of drugs they used terms like "green" or "Ticket for Panathinaikos" for cannabis," keys ", "buttons" or "tools" for ecstasy pills and "tens" and "fives" for the grams of cocaine.

 

Tags: Crime newsDrugsCriminal network
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