NEWS

Turkish gang smuggled ton of heroin into Greece

An unprecedented haul of heroin with a street value of around 30 million euros discovered at two sites in Attica on Friday was smuggled by an Istanbul-based gang into Greece via Iran and Turkey, sources told Kathimerini.

The drug was found at a warehouse in Koropi, east of Athens, and at a home in the northern suburb of Filothei. The house belongs to the ex-wife of a Greek man who owns a Dubai-based shipping company. Both were arrested. In total 11 people, six Greeks and five Turks, were taken into custody following an operation in which the US Drug Enforcement Agency assisted.

Sources told Kathimerini that the heroin, weighing just over a ton, had been brought into Greece hidden in a truck that crossed the northeastern Evros border with Turkey four days ago. The Turkish gang leader had traveled to Athens to arrange for the drug to be shipped to Belgium and Germany. It is thought that after the addition of cutting agents, the total weight of the drug could have reached as much as 8 tons.

Police are thought to have been monitoring the suspects for almost six months. Other members of the gang were recently arrested in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Albania.

The 11 suspects arrested in Greece were taken into custody on Thursday night and faced a prosecutor in Piraeus on Friday.

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