An ongoing investigation by Corruption Prosecutor Konstantinos Sargiotis into a ring of human trafficking has revealed the involvement of a high-ranking Police officer, an official from the Greek National Intelligence Services, a lawyer as well as some immigrants.

All the persons involved have been officially charged with establishing and managing a criminal organization, trafficking illegal immigrants and passive and active bribery. According to the legal case files the high ranking police and intelligent services officers would use their access to the state mechanisms in order to cover for the transport of illegal immigrants into Greece, thus extracting large sums of cash.

Greek justice and the department of internal Police affairs started probing into the matter in 2013 after they were alerted to the ring by anonymous complaints. The authorities gained the legal approval to use phone tapping on the suspects, which led to the disclosure of their involvement.

According to the prosecutor the police officer would release illegal immigrants detained by authorities after receiving 1,500 Euros. The contact between the officer and the detained immigrants was made via another immigrant. The legal representatives characterized the charges a ‘stitching up’ of older cases and claimed their clients had been ‘framed’.