NEWS

Major drug smuggling ring smashed

An international drug smuggling racket that had planned to sneak 22 tons of cannabis into Britain ahead of the London Olympics in July has been broken following the arrest of three suspected members, police said on Monday, following a series of joint raids with members of the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE), the Coast Guard and the National Intelligence Service (EYP).

The detainees include a 38-year-old Albanian national known as Ilir or Ilias, according to police, who gave no details about the other two. Officers said they were seeking to charge a 42-year-old inmate on the eastern Aegean island of Chios and an individual known as Youli believed to be residing in Bulgaria.

The case comes a month after police in the central town of Larissa seized 1.8 tons of cannabis from refrigerated trucks which had also been destined for Great Britain. The 38-year-old Albanian suspect had been charged in connection with that haul but had evaded arrest.

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