Europol announces arrest of money laundering suspect in Athens
A “notorious money launderer” who cleaned “the dirty money of the world’s foremost criminals” was arrested late last month in Athens, Europol, the EU police agency, has announced.
The arrest, on 31 May, followed a long investigation by Dutch police into the activities of the underground banker, who operated in the Netherlands.
The man is suspected of leading a criminal organization which laundered millions of euros on a monthly basis for criminals, Europol said.
His arrest was supported within the framework of Europol’s “Token” taskforce, which targets the networks facilitating underground banking worldwide.
The agency said that the recent takedown of three encrypted communication tools used by criminals – Encrochat, Sky ECC and ANOM – revealed the importance of these underground bankers and their criminal landscape.
Greece’s Financial and Economic Crime Unit (SDOE) said the man, a 52-year-old Greek of Albanian origin, was arrested in the Glyfada suburb, southeast of Athens.
The unit believes that the group he was involved in transferred as much as 250 million euros in 10 months.
In the detained man’s apartment, police found and confiscated currency in several denominations and cell phones, including one used for encrypted communications.
