Police dismantled a large organized crime group involved in counterfeiting fuel and alcohol

The police dismantled an organized crime organization whose members imported and produced chemical products to adulterate fuel, traded adulterated fuel and illegally imported ethyl alcohol to adulterate alcoholic beverages.

Twenty members of the organization, including their head, were arrested in this case, and another 10 members of the organized crime group were identified and put on the wanted list.

A case has been brought against them on charges of organizing a criminal community, smuggling liquid fuel and ethyl alcohol, money laundering, receiving and disposing of proceeds of crime, as well as violating weapons laws, competition and rules governing the commodity market.

Import of chemicals from Bulgaria and creation of a fuel adulteration enterprise

During the investigation, after appropriate use of the information and the use of special interrogation techniques, the creation of a structured and permanently operating criminal organization was established, whose members were actively engaged in the systematic import of chemical products from Bulgaria for the purpose of adulterating fuel and ethyl alcohol without paying taxes and duties. At the same time, while taking advantage of the company’s legitimate business of producing disinfectants, they also operated an illegal plant producing chemical solvents suitable for adulterating fuels.

For these purposes, the leader of the criminal organization created 3 independent subgroups with appropriate infrastructure and technical equipment. Two of them were involved in supplying chemical solvents to gas stations – either importing them from Bulgaria or operating illegal production – and the third was involved in transporting illegal ethyl alcohol to distilleries, through which it was subsequently supplied to the domestic market for consumption.

Members of the subgroups performed specific functions:

• search for chemical solvents, warehouses and trucks,
• maintaining contact with members of the Bulgarian criminal organization regarding the timing and methods of importing chemical solvents, as well as their subsequent transportation and storage,
• searching and ordering raw materials for the production of chemical solvents,
• supervision of the production and transportation of solvents;
• supply and distribution of smuggled ethyl alcohol among companies involved in the sale of alcoholic products.

Their main place of activity was a truck stop in Aspropyrgos, where they received both ethyl alcohol and chemical solvents and adulterated fuel.

Two warehouses in Western Attica were used, where chemical solvents were initially delivered from Bulgaria, and then they ended up in the above-mentioned parking lot, where adulteration of fuel of unknown origin took place.

At the same time, in the third district, independent from the previous two, there was the headquarters of a company which, by virtue of its activities, supplied all the necessary chemical materials for the production of illegal chemical solvents, which immediately afterwards ended up in the same parking lot to be delivered tanks to gas stations.

With regard to the supply and distribution of ethyl alcohol, they used the network created by the lead participant to smuggle fuel and stored it in the same premises from where a member of the third subgroup picked it up either in his own car or in a car of a rented company, to then deliver it to clients – distilleries and alcohol distribution companies.

How the gang was discovered

To uncover the criminal organization, a targeted police operation was carried out in the evening hours of Tuesday, March 5, 2024, after members of the organization produced thirty tons of chemical solvents, transported them by truck to a parking lot in Aspropyrgos and transferred them to a tanker truck, which was then driven to a gas station in Athens.

The operation included searches at 6 gas stations, a truck stop, 7 homes, 2 warehouses, a disinfectant and industrial chemicals wholesale company, a beverage wholesale company and 2 distilleries.

As a result of these searches, the following was discovered and seized:

• 85,265 liters of chemical solvents,
• 85,265 liters of unleaded petrol without legal documents,
• 5762 liters of ethyl alcohol,
• 746 liters of other alcohol-containing liquids,
• 12 private cars, of which 6 were working, and 3 will be sent for laboratory examination to the Criminal Investigation Department,
• 4 private vehicles,
• 2 tank trucks,
• 4 guns,
• 8 mobile phones
• 78,955 euros.

The volume of illegal trafficking in chemical solvents of the first subgroup amounted to 111 tons, the second – 150 tons, and the duties and other fees that the state lost from both seized and illegally imported chemical solvents, smuggled fuel, ethyl alcohol and other alcoholic beverages exceed 1,200 000 euros.

The arrested persons with the case materials formed against them are delivered to the competent prosecutor and handed over to the investigator.

We remind you that citizens can apply anonymously by calling 11012 or on the portal of the Greek state (gov.gr) “Complaint about economic crimes” (“Καταγγελία για οικονομικά εγκλήματα”).

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