The investigations of the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (DAOE) are in full swing for the dismantling of the criminal group that was operating against the background of drug trafficking. Suspects are already in court for their detention in different proceedings, while the freezing of assets continues.
The amounts frozen from €100.000 that were in the morning, amounted to €350.000, after the banks found others in the accounts of suspects, while it seems that the directly involved are eight people, four convicts and four undertrials. The rest are being held for the objects found in their homes. Among those arrested in the "Plexma" operation of the Police, there is a person of Turkish origin in whose possession a pistol was found and will be brought before a court to request his detention.
Information from filenews states that among those arrested is a person who held a leading role in the group, however, most were allegedly collaborators. The persons who pulled the strings are currently unknown and efforts are being made to identify them. It is for this reason that, on the basis of court warrants, a check is carried out on the electronic data of suspects or other devices in the possession of the Police in order to locate them.
What emerged from the months-long coordinated investigations of the anti-organized crime team, is that persons who either declared themselves unemployed or did not have a stable job, found themselves with luxury vehicles or with financial comfort that was not justified. That is why bank accounts were opened and searches were carried out at the Land Registry in order to block properties, movable or immovable.
The weight of the investigations, as the director of the newly established Directorate, Christos Andreou, told filenews, is directed towards identifying persons who are high in the pyramid of the group and trafficked hundreds of thousands of euros if not millions, through drug contrabands.
The head of the DAOE explained that the investigations did not stop after the discovery last January of the large quantities of cannabis and cocaine, but focused on the economic routes behind the illicit profits. With organized efforts and the analysis of the data, the 26 arrests emerged. "Some of them certainly seem to be the head of this criminal group," Mr. Andreou stressed.
It is noted that as a result of the financial investigations, the freezing of real estate worth more than €400,000 has been achieved, as well as sums of money in banking institutions that reached €350,000. The goal, added Mr. Andreou, is to dismantle the entire ring that is behind a criminal organization, so that they can be completely deconstructed both in the possession of drugs and in the economic benefits.
