“The establishment of DAOE has freed the hands of the Narcotics unit,” a high-ranking officer of the so-called “Greek FBI” had confided to parapolitika.gr a few weeks ago, someone who knows inside and out the underworld of drug trafficking. At that time, there had been successive successes by the Narcotics Prosecution Sub-Directorate, with the same officer noting “wait and see, there will be more to come. The specialization has moved to another level.”
The… prophecy was confirmed with the arrest of the now legendary 65-year-old A.A. and certainly with the raid by the French Navy on the “Ourania A,” which reached port in Martinique on Monday evening, Greek time, with French authorities counting approximately 5 tons of cocaine. The “Ourania A,” the infamous fishing vessel that carried the extremely valuable cargo, is expected to write its own history, just as the “Africa I” did about 20 years ago. This time the “Greek Escobar” tried to take counter-surveillance and protection measures, however they were not enough. He even went so far as to register the fishing vessel as a… pleasure craft in order to pass under the radar of Greek and international authorities.
The “Greek Escobar” had done it before
This, however, does not appear to have been the only fishing… yacht that was in his “service,” as police sources report that several weeks ago there had been another attempt to transport drugs using the same practice: The departure of a similar vessel from Greek shores and its resupply at sea by other boats. This is a favored tactic of drug dealers, who sacrifice a relatively manageable quantity of drugs, in case of loss, in order to test whether the route is safe and away from the eyes of authorities. In this case, authorities had detected such a route within the Mediterranean aimed at supplying drugs in the wider Malta area. However, due to adverse weather conditions, the said resupply never took place. Nevertheless, the network came under the microscope of Greek and international authorities.
The Greek FBI “gave the signal” to the American DEA and French Navy for the “Greek Escobar”
In this case, however, despite the fact that international organizations operating on Greek territory/waters are usually detected through information from the DEA at the American embassy in Greece, the flow of information was reversed. The Greek Narcotics unit was the one that gave “chewed food” to the DEA and by extension to the French Navy, since it has been monitoring the movements of the “Greek Escobar’s” network for a whole year.
For this reason, today at GADA and at the presentation of the Hellenic Police actions for the dismantling of the network, the US Ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, will also be present, something that is undoubtedly happening for the first time in the many years of cooperation between American and Greek authorities.
