For the police, the destruction of the railway network by gangs of scrap metal dealers is a common thing. The same goes for the EfE administrations from time to time who have searched in vain for a solution to the problem. What is rare is that OSE employees themselves partner with spirals that sell the organization’s “transport” material.

Such a case surfaced a few years ago after an investigation by the Economic Police Department. In addition to the owners of three scrap trading companies in Volos and Thessaloniki, a total of nine Hellenic Railways employees were accused of being involved. Among them is the head of the linear repair department. This particular case, like others like it, is resurfacing in connection with the tragic train accident at Tempi and information requiring the gradual disabling of the lighting and remote control systems over the prescribed years. to under-maintenance and successive incidents of sabotage.

A paper submitted to Parliament a few years ago mentions, among other things, the increasing phenomenon of theft – damage to the network of an organization, and that criminals who steal electrical cables in order to remove copper from them “have specialized know-how so that they do not the high voltage of the electric drive threatened. Incidents, the document says, have been noticed, but by the time OSE teams and police arrive on the scene, the perpetrators have already completed their work. According to previously published data, more than 120 kilometers of copper cables were stolen in four years, and the cost of repairing the damage is estimated at 15 million euros. The investigation of the Economic Police Department began in December 2017 and led to the formation of case files against 30 people on the facts of theft, fraud, bribery of an employee, etc. Then it turned out that OSE SA employees, after consulting with the owners of enterprises engaged in the sale of old metals (scrap) , removed old rolling stock and non-railway materials from the organisation’s warehouses, which they then sold for a profit.

In four years, more than 120 kilometers of copper cables have been stolen, and the cost of repairing the damage is estimated at 15 million euros.

How did the scheme work? In some cases, they legally handed over old material to recycling companies, but drew up virtual balance sheets and handover protocols. In doing so, they were actually selling more metal from the organization’s warehouses than was documented, resulting in a loss of revenue. As part of the investigation, the police identified 71 virtual scales. Alternatively, according to the court documents in the possession of “K”, the defendants stole a large amount of marketable material by entering the warehouses after business hours. At the same time, the sale of metals was carried out without weighing and without issuing consignment notes. According to police estimates, the profit exceeded 1 million euros.

Shortly before this particular case came to light, it was the South East Attica Security Sub-Directory that arrested a 43-year-old Turkish national who removed 17-meter cables from the commuter rail network in Koropi. He was discovered and arrested by a special team set up to deal with thefts from the OSE railroad network, and in fact the arrestee was eventually charged with 11 more cable thefts.

This phenomenon is more pronounced in the periphery, as, for example, in Magnesia, Larissa, Katerini and other places. In the spring of 2019, for example, sabotage was recorded on the EfE network in Volos not only on electrification cables, but also on rails, while the organization filed a complaint about the ensuing incidents with the local prosecutor’s office. Around the same time, train traffic on the Lianoklady – Domokos line was suspended due to extensive sabotage on the power cables.