Greek, American operation collars ‘merchant of death’

After two meetings in Athens with a US agent who was posing as a weapons dealer, Rami Ghanem returned to the Greek capital in December 2015 to check on his order: 200 American-built automatic weapons, night vision scopes and thermal imaging cameras, among other items. As on the previous two occasions, he was met by an undercover agent from the investigative arm (HSI) of the US Department of Homeland Security.
Ghanem had initially told the "arms dealer" that his clients were in Beirut and the arms were intended for Iraq. The pair drove out to a warehouse in Aspropyrgos, west of the Greek capital, to check on the illegal merchandise. Instead of his order, Ghanem found himself staring down the gun barrels of a team of Hellenic Police (ELAS) security officers and drug enforcement agents from the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE), who arrested him in a joint Greek-US operation.