For 48 hours, the Greek police have been keeping secret the names of the people arrested as part of the "Flowers of Evil" operation, conducted jointly with the American DEA, to crack down on an Albanian criminal group responsible for trafficking cocaine from Colombia.

In the operation where 84 kg of cocaine were seized, 7 people were arrested, most of whom were Albanians. Among them stands out a person wanted by Interpol Tirana for murder in Albania, as well as another Albanian, considered a link to drug trafficking groups in Colombia. Along with the Albanian wanted for murder, his son was also arrested. Highly confidential sources indicate that one of the arrested is a well-known name in business circles in Albania.

The importer of rose shipments appeared to be a "secret" company, which had been established in 2023. However, investigators discovered that the company had no real headquarters or staff, while its declared activity, according to the relevant Criminal Procedure Code (CAC), was in no way related to the flower trade.

During the investigation, the competent services of the AADE examined the history of imports of this company. It was discovered that, during the previous eight months, it had made a total of seven other shipments of roses from Colombia to Greece. Investigators estimate that one or two of the first shipments may have been of a test nature, so that members of the network could determine whether the method could be applied without being detected. For subsequent imports, it is believed that narcotic substances were placed inside the flower shipments.

The perpetrators appear to have planned the route of the shipments to limit the chances of detection. Instead of making direct imports from Colombia to Greece, they chose an intermediate route via Canada. A direct shipment from Colombia could trigger the risk analysis systems used by customs and police authorities. Thus, the shipments of roses and cocaine were first transported to Canada. There, new transport documents were issued, with a company in Canada as the sender and a florist in Artemidha as the recipient.

However, it is suspected that the specific flower shop was also a virtual store. According to the investigation, the space where the business appeared to operate was rented by members of the network just a few days before the shipment arrived in Athens.

The flowers containing the illegal cargo were placed in a total of 80 boxes. According to the information, in each bouquet consisting of 40 roses, approximately 11 flowers were modified to be used for the transport of cocaine.

The method was based on preserving the natural flower at the top of the flower, while the stem was replaced with plastic. Inside the plastic stems, cocaine was placed. In this way, even a standard check by a customs officer or police officer would have difficulty detecting that some of the stems were not natural, but plastic and contained narcotic substances.

This practice does not appear to be a new trafficking method. Similar cases of cocaine being transported by Colombian gang members using flower shipments have been recorded in the past. In 2023, for example, drugs were found in a shipment of roses at Amsterdam airport, while a similar seizure was made in 2018 by Russian authorities in St. Petersburg.

The operation to arrest members of the network also involved the EKAM special forces and the Hellenic Police's Anti-Organized Crime Directorate. The case file concerns a total of nine individuals, seven of whom were arrested.

Most of the arrests were made at the suspected flower shop in Loutsa. The individuals who authorities consider to have played a key role in the network were housed in a rented villa in Marathon.

A search of the villa turned up 2kg of cocaine, a firearm and the remains of plastic flower stalks. These findings reinforce the authorities' assessment that the specific space was used to store and process drugs that had been imported in the past.

The defense of four of the six arrested was undertaken by renowned criminologist Sakis Kechagioglou. Manolis Vamvounakis is also participating in the case as a defense attorney.