Cocaine

Port authorities in Patra, western Greece, on Thursday confiscated 43 kilos of cocaine stashed in a truck and arrested four people on charges of being part of a wider drug smuggling ring.

The truck, with two people on board, arrived at Patra port on a ship from Italy.

A man was arrested on Monday at Athens International Airport for attempting to smuggle 2.5 kilos of cocaine concealed in his suitcase into Greece.

The suspect, a 30-year-old Lithuanian national, had traveled from Rio in Brazil via Zurich.

Police in Athens said on Monday that a long-running investigation into a large international drug has been concluded with the arrest of 97 people.

The suspects -- African, Albanian, Greek, Bulgarian and Romanian -- are alleged to have been involved in channeling large quantities of heroin, cocaine and cannabis to locations close to central Athens for distribution across the capital.

Istanbul police detained two suspects of Nigerian origin who were trying to smuggle drugs in condoms that they later swallowed in Istanbul's Atatürk International Airport on Nov. 11, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Police have started the process of destroying the drugs that they confiscated in the first 10 months of this year.

During that time more than 6.7 tons of cannabis, 45,630 cannabis trees, 178.7 kilos of heroin and 101 kilos of cocaine have been seized.

A total of 11,220 people have been charged with drug-related offenses in connection with 8,653 cases.

BELGRADE - Use and abuse of drugs in Serbia, such as tablets, heroin, cocaine or synthetic drugs has been one of the major issues of our society, writes Serbian daily "Kurir".

However, writes the daily, the list of the UN Agency on Drugs and Crime testifies that the state either does not want to enter the fight with drug addiction, or has already lost the fight against it.

Border police at the Kulata checkpoint with Greece seized on Tuesday some BGN 5 M worth of cocaine, the Interior Ministry reports.

The amount confiscated is said to be nearly 65 kg, given the import price of BGN 76 000 per kilogram.

The drug was hidden in secret compartments of a truck driven by a Bulgarian national.

The driver was remanded in custody.

Police at Athens International Airport on Monday detained two Brazilian nationals, a 24-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, after determining that they had swallowed small packages of cocaine weighing more than 2 kilograms.

The two suspects arrived in Athens on a flight from Sao Paolo via Zurich.

Greek police arrested a Brazilian couple for attempting to smuggle 2,240 grams of cocaine through the ‘Eleftherios Venizelos’ Athens International Airport. The 24-year-old man and his 27-year-old female co-traveler, who landed in Athens from a Zurich flight, were caught after Greek authorities discovered they had hidden the drugs in 212 plastic bags, which they had swallowed.

A 21-year-old Venezuelan national was arrested at Athens International Airport on Monday for allegedly attempting to smuggle about 3.5 kilos of cocaine hidden in the covers of 6 children's books.

The woman, who was traveling from Rio de Janeiro via Zurich, was believed to be a member of a large scale drug smuggling ring operating in various Latin American and European countries.