Greek police and the Europol announced the arrest of a 52-year-old businessman man in Glyfada, suburb of south Athens. He is suspect for notorious money laundering for an international drug trafficking gang.
A European arrest warrant was pending against the man who is of Albanian origin, has a Greek name and is holder of a Greek passport.
The arrest warrant has been on the charge of running a criminal organization which collected huge sums of money from the drug trade.
In an operation following many months of cooperation of the Drug Prosecution Department of the Operational Directorate of the Attica SDOE with the corresponding Dutch Authorities was located and arrested in Glyfada on May 31.
In its statement, the EUROPOL said that the recent take-down of three encrypted communication tools used by criminals – Encrochat, Sky ECC and ANOM – revealed the importance of these underground bankers and their criminal landscape.
The European police agency described the man as “one of Europe’s Biggest Underground Bankers.”
The man was wanted on a European arrest warrant as a managing member of a criminal organization dealing with the collection and distribution of large sums of money in the Netherlands from the drug trade.
The criminal organization trafficked on a daily basis, through an “underground” banking system using encrypted communications, large sums of trafficked money estimated at 250,000,000 for a period of about 10 months, Greek media reported.
Large amounts of money
In a search carried out at the residence of the arrested person, sums of money in banknotes from various countries were found and seized, including Euros, US dollars, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, Swiss francs, Turkish lira, United Arab Emirates Dirhams and South African Rand.
Also confiscated were mobile phones, including a mobile phone used for encrypted conversations through special applications, a tablet, a digital disc and SIM cards.
The Operational Directorate of the SDOE Attica continues to cooperate with the respective Dutch Authorities and with the competent judicial authorities of the country, as there are reasonable suspicions of money laundering in Greece from criminal activities.
The man had established a real estate business in the area, Greek media reported.
According to some media he is member of the Albanian drugs mafia.