A major operation by the Police Department resulted in the arrest of two individuals – members of a criminal organization with an international footprint – who facilitated the importation, distribution and delivery of quantities of cocaine originating from Latin America through the port of Piraeus.

For the arrests of the 47-year-old and the 27-year-old, cooperation was developed with a special office of the US Embassy in Athens and the Piraeus Customs. Also, the investigation of the Coast Guard was assisted by the Drug Enforcement subdivision of the Organized Crime Prevention Directorate and the Drug and Weapons Enforcement Department of the Attica Police Department.

On 28 November, in cooperation with officials of the 3rd Customs Office of Piraeus, a refrigerated container with a cargo of bananas originating from Ecuador was located, where 22 plastic packages of cocaine with a total gross weight of 26.492 kg were found and seized.

From November 4 to November 11 at the Guayaquil container station in Ecuador, members of the criminal organization hid a quantity of cocaine in containers of bananas for shipment to Greece. On the morning of 28 November in Piraeus, other members of the same criminal organization removed part of the drugs from the container and handed it over to the 47-year-old man, who, taking advantage of his supervisory duties and using the facility’s vehicle, took it out of the fenced area of the Piraeus Container Terminal and delivered it to the recipients for further trafficking.

To facilitate the recovery of the drugs from the container, the 27-year-old arrested man having, due to his position, access to the container loading/unloading and stowing plan planning system of the Piraeus Container Terminal, he changed the position of the container to allow the easy opening of its doors and the extraction of the cocaine, without the perpetrators being noticed.

In searches carried out in homes and vehicles in the presence of a judicial officer, four mobile phones, the sum of 3,250€, two USBs, a laptop computer, an external hard drive, two vehicle registration plates, and an unused container seal were found and seized.

Investigations are underway to identify the remaining members of the criminal organization, in the context of which official channels of information exchange with authorities within and outside the borders have been activated in order to identify and link the logos with other seizures worldwide.

The value of the seized drugs is close to €1,000,000.