Dozens of arrests made in EU-wide food fraud probe

Greek law enforcement authorities took part in a 25-nation operation designed by Europol to crack down on the trade of fake and substandard food and beverages, the police said in an announcement on Friday.

The joint European operation was carried out between December 2022 and April of this year, and resulted in the overall seizure of 8,000 tons of contraband products and 6.5 million liters of alcoholic drinks, collectively worth an estimated 30 million euros.

In Greece, the police and other law enforcement agencies carried out 13 separate investigations and made 33 arrests. In one of these cases, 21 suspected members of a criminal gang were arrested in March for smuggling bootleg liquor from Bulgaria worth more than 221,000 euros, while another racket that was dismantled in April dealt in fake certification for cotton, wheat and rye seeds. The damage from its illicit activities is believed to reach 472,000 euros.