‘We will follow them wherever they go’
The police are determined to put a stop to impromptu drag races that are often death traps for other motorists as well as the participants and are a permanent nuisance for residents of many areas in Attica. The arrest last month of three drivers taking part in amateur races was part of an impressive operation by the traffic police that began with a road block on Vouliagmenis Avenue and ended in the courts, where the accused were made an example of with a one-year sentence for each and the confiscation of two of the cars. Among the three was the person considered to be the «Big Daddy» of the drag scene, nicknamed «the Cursed One.» Brigadier Nikos Davillas, director of the Attica Traffic Police, told Kathimerini that this operation was only the beginning of a campaign by both the police and traffic police to wipe out what he called «this blight on society.» Davillas said there was a plan not only to stop the races in their traditional haunts, but to drive out the offenders from any new «tracks» they might move to. Insiders say a lucrative business has grown up around these races in the form of illegal betting. Many of the cars are dangerous, according to mechanics working at the garages where small cars are converted into «missiles.»
