Police in Greece seized 210 kilos and 300 grams of cocaine found in a container at the port of Piraeus. Four people have been arrested.
The drugs were discovered in 180 nylon packages hidden in containers of frozen shrimp that arrived from South America. Greek authorities believe the destination was Albania from where they would have been channeled to Central and Northern Europe.
Police said the criminal group had gained more than five million euros from cocaine trafficking.
The suspects, two Greek and two Albanian nationals, include the 48-year-old man believed to be the leader of the gang who had an outstanding arrest warrant for his involvement in another drug raid in 2017, where he was accused of participating in a gang that manufactured Captagon pills in a hidden laboratory in Nea Peramos, west Attica.
At the 2017 anti-drug operation, authorities had arrested four suspects, while another three had managed to escape. Among them was the Albanian national who headed the gang.
Police also said one of the Greek suspects arrested has served a prison sentence in the US and is allegedly linked to the Colombian terrorist organization FARC.
Another 110 kilos of the same drug were discovered in a separate container during the raid which authorities believe belongs to a different criminal group. The investigation is continuing to clarify who brought in the second batch of drugs.
Cocaine trafficking in Greece
Greek authorities were assisted in their months-long operation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
In September 2023, 585 kilograms of cocaine from Latin America was seized by police in Thessaloniki.
Police photographs of the drug haul suggested some of the packages were labeled with Nazi swastikas.
In May 2023, Peruvian authorities seized packages of cocaine marked with Nazi swastikas as well as the name “Hitler” at a port in northern Peru, from where would have been shipped to Belgium.
This was the second time in a space of a few months that police in Thessaloniki seized a large shipment of cocaine.
In June 2023, officers of the drug enforcement unit found 161 kilograms of cocaine in packages that had been stuffed into hidden compartments in the shipping container. The haul was estimated to have a street value of at least 3.2 million euros.
Global cocaine production on the rise
A recent report reveals that global cocaine production has reached an all-time high as demand surges following Covid lockdowns.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported a 35% increase in coca cultivation from 2020 to 2021, resulting in record production levels.
The findings indicate that West and Central Africa have become new hubs for drug trafficking. In addition, traffickers are increasingly utilizing international postal services to deliver drugs to consumers.
During the COVID-related lockdowns, the use of parcel and courier services saw a significant uptick due to restrictions on passenger flights, according to the Global Report on Cocaine.
The report highlights an increase in West African countries employing well-established, global postal services and smaller shipping companies to smuggle cocaine to Europe and beyond.