Exarchia: Police arrest 21, breaking up drug trafficking ring

Twenty-one members of a drug trafficking ring were arrested on Thursday at sweeps in the Exarchia section of Athens and the greater city area, police announced on Friday.

Those arrested included 13 Albanians, 4 Greeks, 2 Georgians, a Moldavian, and a Bulgarian, all aged between 19 and 37 years.

Eleven of those arrested comprised the core membership of the Exarchia-based gang. Several members had previous records or are serving time in jail, one of them with a life sentence for murder.

The organized crime division of the police stated that members of the gang were responsible for robberies, break-ins and car theft in Nea Ionia, Gyzi, Ilion and Exarchia. The police sweep involved searches of 25 homes, where they confiscated drugs, cars, and cell phones, among other things.