Seven police among 14 arrested for immigration offenses
Police in northern Greece arrested 14 people, including seven police officers, on Monday on suspicion of involvement in a criminal group that sold bogus papers to foreign nationals to enter and remain in the country illegally.
The seven officers are serving officials in the police’s passport control department. The case file includes a total of 123 people, including two other police officers.
The arrests followed a long investigation by police, which identified the owner of a food truck as the mastermind of the criminal gang. The main suspect is a resident of Krystallopigi, near Florina, on the border with Albania.
The charges listed in the case file include bribery, the issuing of false documentation, forgery, abuse of power, breaching state secrets, breach of duty, customs violations, money laundering and illegal weapons possession.
Raids on the homes of the suspects yielded 463,000 in euros, 380 in Australian dollars, 19 in US dollars, 20 in North Macedonia dinars and 8,540 in Albanian lek, as well as cigarettes, tobacco, passports a shotgun and 122 rounds of ammunition.
The arrested individuals have been taken before a prosecutor.
