NEWS

Truck drivers’ fuel racket busted

Police in Thessaloniki have arrested 20 people, mostly fuel truck drivers, for running a scam in which they siphoned off gasoline they were meant to deliver and then sold it to friends, netting the suspects well over 1 million euros.

Officers said on Friday that the suspects, aged 29 to 77, were arrested after officers watched for 50 days a yard where the drivers transferred the fuel — between 50 and 70 liters from each shipment — into large containers. Each driver had a seperate container and would sell the fuel on his own.

In the 50 days authorities watched the site, 2,300 liters of fuel a day was siphoned off into the containers and the suspects netted a collective total of 195,000 euros.

?If you take into account that this place had been operating for at least a year, you can imagine what amounts were stolen and then sold,? said security police chief Athinagoras Pazarlis.

Police are seeking another five suspected members of the ring and have prepared cases against 10 people that bought the stolen fuel.

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