A well-known fraudster who laundered dirty money on behalf of the world’s biggest criminals was arrested on May 31 in Athens. Europol.

His arrest was the culmination of a lengthy investigation by the Dutch police into the activities of this “shadow banker” operating in the Netherlands. The man is suspected of being the leader of a criminal organization that laundered millions of euros for criminals every month.

Europol was able to gather a huge amount of information by hacking the systems of three encrypted communication tools commonly used by criminals: Encrochat, Sky ECC and ANOM.

This is a 52-year-old Greek of Albanian origin, who was identified and arrested in Glyfada as the leader of a criminal organization that collects and distributes large sums of money from the Netherlands.

The criminal organization moved money daily through the “underground” banking system using encrypted messages, and an estimated 250 million euros were transferred within ten months.

His arrest was achieved after months of cooperation from the Narcotics Division of the Operations Directorate. EDMS Attica with the Dutch authorities.

During a search conducted at the place of residence of the arrested person, banknotes of various countries were found and seized, including euros, US dollars, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, Swiss francs, Turkish liras, United Arab Emirates dirhams and South African rands.

Mobile phones were also confiscated, including a mobile phone used for encrypted conversations through special applications, a tablet, a digital disk and SIM cards.

The operational management of SDOE Attica continues to cooperate with the relevant authorities of the Netherlands and with the competent judicial authorities of the country, as there are reasonable suspicions of money laundering in Greece from criminal activities.