Loan shark raised his capital from drugs
An Athens man arrested for trafficking large quantities of drugs managed to multiply his illegal gains through usury, police said yesterday. Anastassios Polycretis, 34, was arrested in the central Athens district of Kypseli together with his girlfriend, Chrysanthi Petraki, 25, for drug-dealing. Raids on Petraki’s flat and another untenanted apartment revealed 1,389 ecstasy pills, a kilo of hashish, 300 grams of cocaine and small quantities of LSD. Announcing the arrests yesterday, police claimed Polycretis had made a habit of lending the money he made from the drugs trade to cash-strapped businessmen at exorbitant interest rates. Meanwhile, police yesterday also announced that eight people – including a 14-year-old – had been arrested for drugs offenses during a raid on Friday on a Gypsy camp in Zefyri, on the northwestern outskirts of Athens.
