Severe criminal charges have been brought against members of two criminal organisations that were dismantled yesterday as part of a major police operation in Crete.
These organisations were allegedly active in drug trafficking, mainly cocaine and cannabis, in areas of the municipalities of Heraklion and Malevizi.
As far as the drug case is concerned, the prosecutions concern the formation, membership and management of a criminal organisation, drug trafficking in the context of organised activity, as well as violations of the legislation on weapons.
The defendants involved in the case requested and were given time to plead next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, depending on their alleged role in the ring.
Nikos Steiakakis, defense attorney for four of the defendants, said:
“We are waiting for the case file in order to see what is the responsibility of each defendant and what is the extent of it, so that their treatment at the stage of apology and interrogation is individualized.”
For his part, lawyer George Kokosalis spoke of “excessive prosecutions,” noting that “legal characterization has been abused in recent years” and adding that “I am sure it will be dropped in the courtroom.”
Some misdemeanor offences that were separated from the drugs part of the case were referred for trial tomorrow at the Autonomous Three-Member Petty Court.
Lawyer Dionysis Verras, commenting on the operational part of the case and the police preliminary investigation, stressed that the part of the case concerning the illegal subsidies of OPEKEPE was separated.
As he said, “the entire operational part and the police preliminary investigation are based on the lifting of the telephone privacy, and this worries me,” referring to a “witch hunt” and noting that although fraud is mentioned, the amount of the loss has not been clarified.
