Greek police has dismantled a gang of Greeks and foreign nationals who had set up a laboratory in eastern Attica to extract cocaine from cowhides.
According to preliminary police announcements on Thursday, the cocaine have been brought in the country from South America in shipments of leather that were soaked in the illegal drug.
The leather was then reportedly taken to a property in the East Attica village of Pikermi, where the gang is believed to have extracted the cocaine from the leather, turned it into powder and prepared it for sale in Greece and other parts of Europe.
Officers with the police unit called “Greek FBI” raided the property on Wednesday where they found 30 pallets with cowhides, chemical substances for the cocaine extraction.
They arrested four Greek “businessmen” and three Albanian nationals, while another three suspects are being sought, investigation in the property continues and the operation is in full swing.
At least one of the suspects is believed to have the chemical knowledge needed to extract the liquefied drugs from the leather.
This is the second such operation identified in Greece, after police dismantled a racket in West Attica last month that was smuggling t-shirts soaked in cocaine into the country.
The prosecution analysts speak of a new method used by large cocaine rings to transport drugs without being detected, media reported.
The chemist, the Bolivian link to the Latin American cocaine cartels, the Spanish dealer, the three Albanian traffickers and the five Greek “businessmen” make up the multinational cocaine cartel that brought cowhides from Latin America to officially make clothes and shoes, but the leathers were soaked with pure cocaine.
Drug enforcement analysts speak of a new method used by large cocaine rings to transport drugs without being detected by law enforcement authorities. This is because by sending the pallets of cowhides in containers to major ports, it is difficult for the police to understand that a large amount of pure cocaine is hidden inside.
In this particular case, the pallets of cowhides were 30 and arrived in the Greek capital by container. A specialized chemical process is required to recover the substance with special solvents, which shows that the members of the organization had knowledge, equipment and of course a chemist who knew the processes very well.