The Athens Airport Police Department has begun to crack down on a transnational criminal organization whose members have been smuggling foreigners inside the country and facilitating their travel to other European countries through Athens International Airport by providing them with the necessary travel documents. .

As part of a large-scale police operation carried out on Tuesday, December 20, a total of 18 people were arrested in various parts of Attica and Thessaloniki, members of the organization, including its alleged leader, as well as 13 illegal immigrants. identified, in respect of which the procedure for administrative expulsion was initiated, and the foreigner was detained, in respect of which there was a warrant for arrest for rape.

Lt. Gen. Konstantinos Markopoulos, director of the Athens Airport Police Department, said in his statements in the case that the police dealt a critical blow to the organized schemes of smuggling of foreigners both in Greece and in other countries with this success. European countries. In addition, he noted that the scheme, which the investigation showed to have worked professionally, had been active since at least January 2022.

The investigation and clarification of the case was preceded by an appropriate assessment and use of information and data, and special investigative actions were carried out, within the framework of which the mode of action of the criminal organization (mode of action) was established.

In particular, members of the organization picked up immigrants who entered the country illegally, mainly from the forests of Evros, in rented, stolen or “official” cars, and then delivered them either directly to the pre-departure safe houses in Thessaloniki, or into the forest.

Subsequently, the perpetrators, using cars with foreign license plates, took them to safe houses before leaving for Athens, where they provided them with the necessary travel documents, fake or genuine, of other persons with whom they were looking, through the airport of Athens, to travel around Europe.

Alternatively, some of the victims of human trafficking were transported by city buses to the Thessaloniki area, from where they were picked up by cars and taken to the northern borders of the country, which they crossed on foot with the help of foreigners.

During searches carried out as part of the operation, 12 official cars, 136 travel documents, of which 110 were genuine, 48,020 euros, 69 mobile phones, an ATM and 61 grams of crystal methamphetamine, were found in homes and shops. confiscated.

The detainees, against whom a criminal case has been initiated, were taken to the competent prosecutor’s office.

Source: RES-IPE