Photo: ethnos.gr
Four policemen, two of whom heads of police stations, were arrested on corruption charges in just two days. The apprehended were involved in racketeering, drug trafficking, "security" providing, exploitation of foreigners and even kidnapping.
The data show that over the last year, senior police officers have organized or been involved in dozens of similar cases.
Two days ago, policemen from the Interior Affairs Department of the Greek police arrested the head of the police station in the Athens suburb of Egaleo. He is accused of racketeering along with a retired policeman, aged 56, and a Pakistani, aged 19. The police are looking for another Pakistani who is also involved in the criminal group.
A day later, the head of the police station in the neighbourhood of Agios Ioannis, Rentis, was arrested after a Pakistani citizen filed a complaint against him with the accusation that he had stolen 4,000 euro from him. It had all started after the Pakistani had not stopped at the "stop" sign. Traffic policemen stopped him then and took him to the local police station. The Pakistani had the amount of 4,000 euro on him as well as a large number of prepaid cards for mobile phones. According to him, the head of the police station undertook his case. Under the pretext that it was necessary to present a document proving how he had obtained the money, the policeman asked the Pakistani to give him 2,000 euro in order to return the rest to him. Moreover, he took half of the cards.
According to sources, photographic accessories, digital discs and other items for which there was no written report regarding their seizure were also found in his office. Now, his colleagues are investigating the probability of him blackmailing other victims.
The Pakistani left and after the announcement of the first arrest of the policeman from Egaleo he called the Internal Affairs Department of the police. During the subsequent inspection, the policemen found in the locker of the head of the police station 1,945.45 euro and 88 prepaid cards.
In Volos, a deputy chief police officer was arrested by his colleagues in connection with the kidnapping of a man, aged 23. The officer threatened him with his gun, forced him to get into his car and then left him outside the city.
The police officer, aged 33, is charged with kidnapping, causing serious bodily injury, illegal detention and other violations. According to sources, the reason for the kidnapping was the settling of accounts between them.
Today, policemen apprehended at the crime scene another colleague of theirs at the time of receipt of racketeering. The policeman went to the shop of a Pakistani citizen to collect his monthly racket amounting to 200 euro. His colleagues from the Internal Affairs Department had been around the shop from early in the morning following the victim’s signal. The policeman was arrested the moment he was taking the marked banknotes in his hands. The Pakistani citizen, who is the victim of the racketeering, claimed that he had been paying this amount for two years already.