Greek police authorities have managed this Friday to dismantle an organization dedicated to the trafficking of migrants, suspected of having handled the transfer of at least 500 people, and they have arrested a dozen suspected members involved in the coordination of these activities in different points of the territory.
The arrests are part of a series of raids carried out simultaneously in Thessaloniki and in various areas of the northwest of the country. The investigations have made it possible to review around 40 episodes of migrant trafficking, with background dating back at least to June 2025, linked to the same criminal structure that would have obtained, according to estimates, at least 750,000 euros through these illicit operations.
The migrants, mostly from Nepal, Yemen and China, would have entered Greece on foot after overcoming demanding mountain routes from Albania, in many cases crossing passes located in the region of Thesprotia.
The suspects allegedly offered them temporary shelter —both in properties and in makeshift camps—, as well as food, water and SIM cards, charging exorbitant amounts for all of this, according to information from the newspaper "Kathimerini".
Once in Greek territory, the network was responsible for organizing the movement of these people, mainly by means of intercity buses bound for Athens and Patras and, in certain cases, for other countries.
According to the investigations, some migrants were sent to irregular work on agricultural holdings in the Peloponnese. In several of these episodes, the suspects would have kept their passports as security for the debts incurred by the journey, so that those affected were forced to pay them off through their work.
The network allegedly used a closed communications network through messaging applications, with which it coordinated the group’s internal movements and shared information about the activity and the movements of the security forces.