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With at least 27 kilograms of pure cocaine from Latin America, worth €1.5 million, a famous former model, who shone on the catwalk in the decade after 2000, was arrested in Aspropyrgos. Along with him, his accomplices from the Netherlands and Guyana were were detained as well. This is the second case where a Greek top model gets caught for involvement in drug trafficking. Back in 2010, another one, Theo Theodoridis, was arrested at Sofia airport with four kilogrammes of Colombian cocaine.

The police operation

The bust was carried out by the anti-drug department of Attica's Security Directorate, in cooperation with the US drug fighter DEA's office at the US Embassy in Athens, the Office for Combating Economic Crimes and other police units.

The international criminal organisation shipped  in containers across the ocean significant amounts of cocaine from South America to Greece and other European countries.

Those arrested

After an extensive police operation in Aspropyrgos and in the centre of Athens, three members of the organisation were nabbed: a Greek citizen (a well-known model), a Guyanese citizen and a Dutchman, aged respectively 38, 48 and 38. A large amount of cocaine – 27.170 kg – was confiscated.

The arrested were charged for the creation of, and participation in, a criminal organisation and for violating the law on addictive substances.

What was the group's manner of action?

As it transpired, from the beginning of 2015, the 48-year-old Guyanese operating mainly in the Netherlands, and the 38-year-old Greek were trying to establish a foothold in cocaine imports and create a network of their own. They had the opportunity to deal with Guyana and thus continuously dispatch quantities of cocaine to be retailed in Greece and in other European countries.

In early summer, based on collaboration between the criminal groups in Guyana and those in Greece, a container freighter was dispatched with scrap metal as its legitimate cargo. The freighter arrived at the port of Piraeus accomplishing an experimental shipment. On 28 August 2015, another 2 containers, again loaded with scrap, arrived in the port of Piraeus. One of them contained the cocaine hidden in vehicle axles especially retrofitted for the purpose.

On Friday, the cocaine load was to be recovered by the group members in the Aspropyrgos warehouse, where the whole scrap shipment had arrived. To do this, the Greek and the Dutchman arrived at the warehouse and were arrested by the police while extracting the cocaine.

The investigation found 27.170 kg of cocaine in 13 plastic packets hidden in 4 axletrees. Its value is estimated at €1.5 million.

At the same time, the 48-year-old Guyanese who organised the shipment, was arrested in a central Athens hotel. He had arrived in Greece two days prior to that, to oversee the load's reception and further distribution.

1,365 euros, 3,100 dollars and 1,000 Guyanese dollars were found on the Guyanese and seized.

Other members of the organisation in Greece, Guyana and the Netherlands are still being sought through international police cooperation. Those arrested were handed over to a prosecutor from the Court of First Instance in Athens.