Police arrest 29 in Exarchia drug crackdown

A total of 29 Greek and Albanian nationals are to face charges in the wake of a major police crackdown on brazen drug trafficking in the central Athens neighborhood of Exarchia, Kathimerini has learned.

During the operation carried out between December and March 9 police tapped phone conversations and infiltrated the ranks of the suspects as they sought to control the drug trade in Exarchia Square and beyond.

Police say the racket employed Algerian migrants as dealers and often used threats and violence to intimidate the competition. In a tapped conversation dated January 19, a suspect urges an accomplice to join him in an attack on Egyptian street vendors. “The Egyptians are here, let’s go slap them about a bit,” he says.

Investigators found that the suspects were also selling weapons. Speaking to an accomplice in December, a suspect brags about a new air gun. “It will blow your mind. It can take out the best of them from 3 meters.”

The drug traffickers were repeatedly targeted by anarchists, police found. In February, a group of anarchists vandalized a restaurant believed to be a gang hangout. Two weeks later, anarchists raided an apartment used as a drug den by the racket. “The regular assaults and the daily drug trafficking made the members of the organization undesirables, resulting in initially sporadic and then more frequent attacks by hooded [individuals] against members of the criminal organization,” a police report said.