ATHENS: Greek authorities on Wednesday said they had seized around 500,000 packets of smuggled cigarettes destined for Europe aboard a Panamanian-flagged ship from Egypt.
Acting on a tip-off from the Greek intelligence service, Greek coastguard officers carried out a dawn raid on the ship, the Svetlana, as it lay moored in international waters just off the southern Peloponnese peninsula.
The smugglers were using a speedboat to unload the cargo on a local beach.As the coastguard caught up with the two men on the speedboat and the Svetlana s Ukrainian crew, police on the shore arrested the drivers of two trucks waiting to receive the contraband and refuel the ship.
The detained will be taken to a prosecutor in the town of Kalamata. -AFP
