Nour M linked to ‘Odessa Network’ of arms contractors
Coast guard officers are in little doubt that a motorship they stopped in the southern Aegean more than a week ago was carrying arms to Syria, Kathimerini has learned.
Experts are still examining the contents of the Nour M’s load after initial searches yielded thousands of bullets but no guns, explosives or other weapons. But the ship’s automatic identification system has shown authorities that the captain had entered Syria as his final destination and only changed it to Tripoli in Libya when he was stopped by the coast guard.
Officers believe that the Nour M is linked to the so-called “Odessa Network” described in research carried out by C4ADS, a nonprofit research organization.
The researchers claim the network is a loose collection of logistics contractors operating for the governments of Russia and Ukraine to get weapons to foreign regimes, including that of Bashar Al-Assad in Libya.
