Ioannina prisons: How the criminal organization operated – Albanian prisoner the “brain”

Dislocated criminal organizationwhose members were active in importing drugs, mobile phones and money, derived from illegal activities, into the Stavraki Penitentiary Ioanninaafter a police operation by the Directorate of Internal Affairs of Northern Greece.

“The mastermind” is an inmate of Albanian origin who goes by the name “Modi” with accomplices the deputy director of the penitentiary, 2 more prison officers, a warden, another inmate and two more private individuals.

8 people were arrested, including 3 prison officers, 2 inmates and a police officer

To dismantle the organization, a coordinated police operation was carried out in Ioannina, Igoumenitsa and Corfu, with the assistance of EKAM and YAT teams, the Thessaloniki Security Directorate, the Corfu Security Sub-Directorate, and police dogs, during which 8 members of the organization were arrested, including 3 prison officers, 2 incarcerated prisoners, a police officer and 2 private citizens.

A case file was filed against those arrested, as the case may be, for criminal organization, drugs, money laundering, weapons, bribery of an official, false certification, breach of official confidentiality, breach of duty and violations of immigration laws and the importation of mobile phones into correctional facilities.

The case file includes 8 more people

In addition, the case file includes 8 more people, who acted outside the scope of the organization’s activities.

In order to investigate the case, information and pre-investigative data were evaluated and used, while special investigative actions were implemented, from the further analysis of which it emerged the existence of a criminal organization, operationally structured and with continuous activity, the members of which, at least since April of 2023, formed and joined it and proceeded to traffic narcotics and further legalize their proceeds.

How they acted – The roles

The organization’s modus operandi was as follows:

• The leader of the organization was an Albanian, incarcerated in the prison shop he owned, who coordinated the marketing and trafficking of drugs and was the final recipient of the proceeds. In the last 10 months, the prisoner has allegedly received cash payments and remittances of around €50,000
• A private person had taken over drug trafficking in Corfu, while delivering part of the revenue to the leader of the organization.
• The police officer and an arrested woman acted as middlemen of the transactions, receiving the sums of money and delivering them to the leader of the organization, either in direct meetings with him inside the prison or by depositing into his individual account through the accountant.
• Two prison officers they undertook to record the sums of money in the accounting statements of the leader, in violation of their duties, as they concealed or falsely recorded the details of the depositors, as well as the amount of the amount. One of them, in fact, informed the leader about upcoming searches in the cells, while allowing him to possess and use mobile phones.
• A female employee assisted the manager in consuming the money, for its legalization, inside the store.
• Due to the financial constraints that exist in detention centers, the leader of the organization had created “black money”, in order to have at any time unregistered amounts of money, which he legitimized through the consumption of products inside the store.

The code names

• The members of the organization minimized their telephone conversations with each other, while using “straw man” telephone connections and code words to make it difficult for the prosecuting authorities to decipher them. Indicatively, “those” were drugs, by “make” they meant supplying someone with drugs and by “white” they meant money.

From the investigations so far, the following have been established:

• 7 cases of drug trafficking,
• 39 cases of money laundering and
• 3 breaches of professional secrecy.
• At the same time, for the police officer-member of the organization, the investigations resulted in the commission of additional cases of violation of official confidentiality, bribery and drug trafficking.

What did the investigations find?

From the totality of the investigations were also found 6,207.82 euros were confiscated, 18 cell phones, small amounts of cannabis, a grater, 8 knives, a bat, 2 tazers, 2 stun grenades, 2 magazines, 302 rounds, a scope, a value watch and handwritten notes.

The confiscated items will be sent for laboratory examination, while the sums of money will be sent to the Deposit and Loan Fund.

Those arrested were taken to the competent prosecutor’s office.