Thessaloniki: Five Arrested for Smuggling 230,000 Liters of Fuel

Five members of a criminal organization were arrested in Thessaloniki and other cities in Northern Greece for trafficking and distributing illegal fuel. The arrests took place on Friday (June 20, 2025) during a police operation conducted by the Office for the Pursuit of Illegal Goods Trafficking in areas of Thessaloniki, Kozani, and Chalkidiki. A case was filed against 17 additional ‘customers’ of the accused. The group’s activities involved bypassing security measures on tankers to extract fuel without issuing legal tax receipts. One member of the gang had been supplying fuels since January 2023, using sophisticated anti-surveillance methods. They installed a GPS jammer in one of the tankers to avoid detection from their employer. It is estimated that over 230,000 liters of fuel were illegally distributed, with a total value exceeding €345,000, while the illegal profit amounted to €288,000. During searches conducted under judicial supervision, authorities seized €8,600, plastic containers, tools used for illegal fuel extraction, a custom metal device designed to fit tanker openings, numerous numbered seals placed during fuel loading, radio frequency jammers, and a vehicle.