Arm smugglers busted by joint Greece-U.S. operation

An arms-smuggling ring bringing weapons from the United States to Greece, with Crete as their main destination, was caught in a joint operation set up by the Attica police Organised Crime department and the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement service.

The three men arrested during the operation in Greece were led before a Zakynthos first-instance court prosecutor on Saturday to face criminal charges.

The three suspects were arrested on Friday during coordinated raids carried out by Greek police in Attica, the Ionian island of Zakynthos and a village in the Rethymno region on the island of Crete.

A fourth man, a 45-year-old Greek-American believed to be the ring leader, had earlier been arrested in the U.S.

An investigation into the criminal ring's activities began about four months ago in March when a shipment containing 69 fire arms of various types and calibres, as well as a large amount of ammunition, was found and recalled by U.S. authorities in Naples, Italy. This led to the arrest of the suspected ring leader by U.S. authorities in early June.

Based on the findings of U.S. authorities, the Greek-American was buying the weapons and the ammunition in the U.S. and loading them onto cars that he owned that were then sent by ship to Naples, where they were picked up by the two Greek suspects from Zakynthos.

The greater part of the arms shipments were then sent to Crete to be picked up by a third suspect, a 67-year-old man from a village in Rethymno.

Using this method, the group had imported 40 fire arms, mostly revolvers and other handguns, and some 1500 bullets into Greece in January 2010. These guns, based on the findings of the investigation, mostly ended up on the island of Zakynthos where police have arrested two men aged 37 and 44 years old, respectively, in connection with the case.

Greek authorities also found and confiscated a Marlin 0.22 rifle and a revolver believed to originate from the same 2010 shipment in a specially designed cache within the home of one of the suspects.

In Athens, in the home belonging to the ring leader, police found and confiscated three electronic evacuation devices, a hunting shotgun and various documents concerning the arrival in Greece and the trip to Italy carried out by members of the organisation in March 2012 in order to pick up the shipment that was intercepted and confiscated.

Evidence collected at the home of the 67-year-old suspect in Rethymno included a military rifle, a telescopic sight, fire arm components and various types of ammunition, as well as the telephone number that he used to contact the group's leader.

The organised crime ring is believed to have earned large sums through its activities, while the police are continuing the investigation in the framework of international police cooperation.