Cocaine traffickers are using Greek betting monopoly OPAP as a conduit for laundering the proceeds of their illegal drug trade, according to Greek law enforcement officials. Greek media outlet To Vima obtained a copy of a police report into a multinational gang of Greeks, Albanians and Russians who smuggled 146 kilos of cocaine from Ecuador to a port in Thessaloniki in late October. The drugs were packed into containers labeled ‘bananas’ and specially wrapped so as to elude detection by drug-sniffing dogs – that is, dogs trained to locate drugs, not dogs who like to party – yet Hellenic Police managed to discover the 108 bales o’ blow nonetheless.
The police report also noted that some of the gang members enjoyed “outrageous favor of fortune” in their ability to pick winning betting slips at OPAP offices across the country. One of the gang reportedly ‘won’ 606 times in a single year playing OPAP games Lotto, Joker and Bet. The report said this individual and other members of the coked up cartel displayed an ability to pick winners that represented a “violation of any law of probabilities.”
The gang apparently spent a lot of time tracking down people across Greece who’d picked winners on an OPAP betting card or won a large lottery jackpot. The gang would offer to purchase these winning slips at a 10-15% premium, then cash them in themselves, thereby transforming their filthy drug profits into clean money. Police said the gang cashed an average of three winners per day, laundering around €1m per year through OPAP’s wickets.
The scam has a precedent in Greece, having been utilized by former cocaine cowboy Alexandros Angelopoulos, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2005 for felony narcotics trafficking. Exactly the type of positive press OPAP’s new owners Emma Delta were hoping for, we’re sure.
