ATHENS (Reuters) -Six workers at Greece’s largest port Piraeus, arrested for allegedly participating in a gang smuggling cocaine hidden in shipping containers from Latin America, were jailed pending trial on Friday, legal sources said.
The case is the third investigation since 2023 that has led to the arrest of port workers on drug trafficking charges.
The suspects, employed by a private company handling cargo operations at Piraeus port were arrested on Monday. On Friday they responded to charges including participation in an international criminal organisation at least since 2024, according to police officials. They have denied wrongdoing.
The drugs were concealed in refrigerated containers loaded with bananas which were shipped from Ecuador, the police said.
Greek police said the investigation, which revealed the gang’s tactics and included surveillance of their communications, was launched after a tip-off by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The criminal ring, led by an Albanian gang, exploited the workers’ access to port facilities and knowledge of loading and unloading cargo procedures, the police officials said.
The alleged gang members were tasked with locating the ships and extracting the cocaine parcels from the containers, and one of them was in contact with the drug buyers in Albania, the officials added. Three guns and bullets were confiscated during the operation.
Defence lawyer Nikos Aletras told Reuters that the initial investigation was “rushed” and the charges were aggravated, as seven suspects appeared before a prosecutor on Friday to respond to the accusations. Six of them were later detained pending trial and a seventh suspect was released.
South American production of cocaine has surged over the past decade, with traffickers helping to turn Europe into a major consumer and a transit point for cocaine. European countries have been seizing record quantities of cocaine annually since 2017.
(Reporting by Yannis Souliotis; Writing by Renee Maltezou; editing by Diane Craft)
