The Greek police said today the during an operation launched on Friday evening have arrested a group of 12 people accused of narcotics trafficking, nine of whom Albanian and two Greek police officers.
Greek news media reported on Saturday that preliminary investigations have revealed that one of the two Greek police officers accused of involvement in the drug trafficking group had received a childcare permit from his service and the second police had also received medical break because of health problems. According to the indictment, the two police officers had regularly participated in the sale of drugs and had almost daily contact with the rest of the gang.Greek media sources say that one of the police officers served on an important Atika security facility and was recently transferred to the new police patrol service in central Athens.
But according to Greek media he had not yet appeared in his new post after taking a long medical break. The second police officer in Grevena, the Northern Greek near the border with Albania, was charged with having cooperated with the drug traffickers network. According to Greek media, an Albanian citizen, allegedly having a leading role in the trafficking group, managed to escape the arrest a few minutes before the police operation.
Greece is the second destination of narcotics from Albania after Italy. Criminal networks use mainly the land border between the two countries to transport large amounts of marijuana, but in recent years even small amounts of heroin and cocaine. The narcotic is transported to the Greek border areas with Albanian courier and then transferred from Albanian-Greek networks with vehicles inside Greece and especially to the tourist areas.