Particularly easy and fast profit from illegal processing of copperwhat are they made of railway signal and electrification cables, is the main reason why the mafia mafia has been rampant for decades. Considering that in some cases “brains” of the copper mafia they were OSE employees, as well as the fact that preventive and suppression measures, if not absent, are applied separately, it is clear why the theft of copper and its resale have signs of a committed crime. In the past, they even asked for EYP mediation, as reported to “K” by OSE officials.. An attempt was made to find the end of a string of copper “exorcism” circuits from the phone records of the criminals.

However, in contrast to the great difficulty in detecting copper thieves, their working methods are simple. Small groups, mostly Roma, they operate in the field. That is, they strip the electronic signaling cable, which is located next to the railway line and is usually cemented. After the copper wire is removed, they burn it in their … headquarters, in the camps to remove the plastic sheath. They then sell – at a price of 6.5-7 euros per kilogram – “pure” copper to illegal foundries, which in turn make this expensive raw material available on the market.

Small “strike groups” break into unguarded sections of the railway network, often with insider information.

“Automatic signaling and remote control systems were fully operational until the end of the 90s. Since 2000, the “copper mafia” began to operate, which, I will not hesitate to say, is led almost exclusively by gypsies. Somehow, a copper cable that provides signaling to the Athens-Thessaloniki axis, located in a concrete groove next to the railway line, has been stolen twice since the beginning of 2000. Elias Davies explains “K”., member and former vice president of the Friends of the Railroad Association. “Calculate that from Athens to Thessaloniki and from there to the border, 700 kilometers of cable were removed twice on both traffic lines. In other words, under the contract, which has been implemented since 2014, the copper cable will be laid for the third time, which will allow the alarm systems that have been inactive for ten years to be reactivated. It remains to be seen if the evil will repeat itself a third time,” says Mr Davies, who has been involved with Greek railways for many decades. In his assessment, if trains are not running for a long time, there is a risk of looting 25,000 volt electrical cables. “If the electrification cables are de-energized – given that this is unprofitable and especially expensive while the trains are not running – then they will be removed overnight. These are thick cables that do not have a plastic sheath, like signal cables located in the ground. It is significant that in In the past, when Thebes, where there is a lot of parking, was electrified, the cables were guarded by MAT. The problem of cable theft is a pan-European one. However, in Greece, the reconstruction of the network is carried out through complex agreements and contracts,” he notes.

However, copper thieves can remove these expensive wires even if they are live. As a former railroad executive explains, 25,000 volts in the past did not prevent copper theft from running unchecked on the network sections in Thessaloniki, near Adendros, Larissa, Paleofarsalos and Oinoi. “They threw a metal boat anchor onto an overhead power line, and after shorting it out, pulled it out with a farm truck, threw it, chopped it up, cut it up and stole it. So they created a problem for the entire network,” explains the former OSE executive, who mentions that in many cases the “work” was done with the help of employees from contracting companies, and also OSE, as you know. as required. It is no coincidence that in 2017 the ring was dismantled, where three “barons” of scrap metal recruited and gave orders to a high-ranking official of the OGE and eight railway workers, having managed to win tenders for railway material intended for sale.

They even stole oil

Looting on Greek railways was not limited to copper and rolling stock. The history that – tells “K” the former head of the OSE. who discovered a few years ago that the cost of fuel for diesel trains had risen unreasonably. “It reached 50 million euros,” he says. Fuel, he explains, was stored in 5-6 tanks in Greece. To find out where the exorbitant costs come from, he implemented a telemetry system to determine the amount of fuel consumed based on the number of kilometers traveled. This is how he learned that a train to Promakhona on other days costs 5 euros per km and another 30 euros per km with the same driver. This was followed by surveillance and spontaneous arrest of the train driver, which is discussed in the movie. Along the way, a former OSE leader who contacted the Greek police found the train stopping near the fields (the line was single at the time). Then the privateers arrived, including the driver’s cousin, and they transferred the fuel from the train’s tanker to the tanker and then shared it. After cameras and telemetry systems were installed in the tanks, fuel costs fell to 25 million euros the following year.