How the police “cracked” crime in universities – squatter evictions and the war on gangs with “headquarters” in the asylum

Dozens of squatters, armories or raiders and gangs engaged in smuggling of all kinds were broken up in the past four years by the forces of the Greek Police within the premises of public universities or around the institutions, with the aim of establishing a climate of security in the university environment, an effort that radically changed the image compared to 2019.

At a time when public debate has opened about how the auxiliary role of the university police will evolve, unpublished accounting data from police agencies around the country reveal that between July 2019 and the beginning of this year, a series of outbreaks of lawlessness were dealt with that disrupted the educational function of HEIs and the smooth everyday life of the university community.

Although the problems have clearly not been solved yet, from the statistical data and from discussions with experienced officers it appears that in Attica alone at least three squatters at the Athens University of Economics and Business were evacuated and an attempt by young people to demolish a wall in order to build their own “hangout” in the institution, while the double occupation of the administration of the National Technical University of Athens and the “Tositsa” building was dissolved.

The squatters of the rectory of the National Kapodistrian University in Propylaia were also arrested, while a liquidation was carried out in the warehouse of the Industrial and Energy Economy laboratory of the NTUA, where, among other things, 25 Molotov cocktails and improvised explosive devices, iron bars and iron bars, sledgehammers, hammers and saws were found.

In Thessaloniki, after the intervention of the police, the “historic” occupation of the Biology of the Aristotle University, which lasted 34 years, was put to an end, while occupations were dissolved in the rectory, in a laboratory of the pharmaceutical department and in an institution building very close to the Roman Agora, i.e. near in the heart of the city.

Gang war

The data also show that the interventions inside the university facilities were accompanied in the previous four years by the systematic fight against criminal rings that took advantage of the climate of impunity that previously prevailed around the HEIs, using university premises as an “asylum” for their activity.

According to a senior officer of the Hellenic Police, who has knowledge of the operations, forces are permanently stationed around large public universities to serve as a deterrent, while in cases of events that may act as a cover for gang activity, the police presence is intensified through additional patrols .

The case of the Athens University of Economics is illustrative, where in two different businesses more than 2.5 kilograms of heroin, significant quantities of cocaine and cannabis and other drugs were seized, while in a series of interventions in the student residences of the institution, groups that traded large volumes of illegal cigarettes were dismantled.

Similar interventions were made at the centers in Zografou and Olof Palme Street, to combat gangs that used the premises as “protected” dens to commit robberies, thefts and drug trade, in some cases even at gunpoint.

The broader plan of EL.AS.

The work of the university security police is part, as the unpublished aggregates reveal, of a broader strategy to free public and private spaces under occupation.

It is indicative that since July 2019 at least 39 occupied public and private properties have been vacated, of which 27 in Attica and five in Thessaloniki.