Greek police dismantled a immigrant-smuggling ring, with a high-profile athlete and his 27-year-old Greek partner allegedly involved in the illicit operation.

According to the police file sheet, the two suspects were trafficking illegal immigrants at the Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” and are currently wanted.

The members of the circuit provided foreigners with fake travel documents from various countries, in order to facilitate them either to exit the country illegally for other European countries from the airport “Eleftherios Venizelos”, or to remain in Greece, in exchange for a fee, which reportedly reached hundreds of thousands of euros.

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Police officers raided an apartment in central Athens where the headquarters of the group was located and found and confiscated a notebook with various amounts of money and a list revealing the charge for the travel documents which amounted to 3,000 euros for each ID card and 5,000 euros for each passport.

According to the case file, the police operation to unravel the circuit started in  September when authorities received intelligence about the activity of the group at the Athens International Airport. The information pointed to the active involvement of a well-known athlete and his partner, information that police deemed reliable and acted immediately on the tip.

Through the course of investigations, officers were led to a gray Volkswagen parked outside a location in downtown Athens, which eventually led to the apartment of the athlete’s partner.

The police cross-checked the information they obtained with pieces of details on Facebook and social media, which led to the detection of the suspects.