They hid 300 kilos of cocaine among bananas – How the authorities located them

A decisive blow to the trafficking and trafficking circuits of large quantities of drugs operating internationally, was achieved by police officers of the Thessaloniki Security Directorate in collaboration with office D. E. A. Athens and with the assistance of the Guardia di Finanza Reggio Calabria. Police located and confiscated approximately 300 kg of cocaine seized. Four people were arrested in connection with the case, 2 of whom are leaders of an international drug trafficking ring.

Drugs were smuggled in containerswhich contained a legal consignment of bananas from a Latin American country for further trafficking to European territory and Australia.

The perpetrators are foreigners aged 38, 48, 45 and 52, against whom a criminal case has been filed, violation of the law on addictive substances, violation of the law on weapons and violence against officials and judges.

The dismantling of the circuit was preceded by a methodical and thorough investigation which revealed that the circuit is active in the trafficking of large quantities of cocaine, which it imports into Europe, but also to Australia from ports of Latin American countries, for further trafficking. .

In more detail, the above members of the criminal organizationwere arrested yesterday (June 9, 2022) in the area of ​​the Municipality of Thermi, as part of a coordinated police operation, during which the trafficking of cocaine, which had been imported in the port of Thessaloniki, hidden in a container containing a legal cargo of bananas, was prevented.

From the investigations carried out on the arrested, in I.X. A van-type truck, in a vehicle, in a luxury house they had rented, as well as in a house that lived in Attica, among others, were found and confiscated:

• 297 kg and 257 grams of cocaine, divided into 260 packages,
• pistol with a cartridge containing 9 cartridges,
• box containing 41 cartridges,
• 2 portable radios,
• 2 signal interferometers,
• 2 electronic positioning devices,
• EUR 1,000, as derived from drug trafficking,
• work gloves, insulating tapes, metal paper cutter and
• 11 mobile phones that they used for their illegal transactions as well as 3 mobile telephony connection packages.

From the analysis of the facts of the case and from the confiscated quantities, it is estimated that the illegal property benefit that the circuit would gain exceeds the 10,000,000 euros.

It is noted that one of the arrested members of the criminal organization, in his attempt to escape, tried to disarm a police officer, while in addition the details of a fifth member of the ring, who is wanted, were identified.

In addition, it turned out that the members of the criminal organization were also involved in the trafficking of a container, which contained cocaine weighing a total of 654.3 kg, contained in 23 boxes of bananasand which was located by the Italian authorities on 11-04-2022 in a port of Italy.

Those arrested will be taken to the competent judicial authorities.