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Athens News Agency: News in English, 11-11-09
CONTENTS
[01] Papandreou speaks on phone with French President Sarkozy
[02] Major contraband cigarette syndicate broken up
[01] Papandreou speaks on phone with French President Sarkozy
AMNA--Prime Minister George Papandreou on Wednesday had a telephone
contact with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. According to a government
announcement the two officials discussed the developments in Europe
and the eurozone and the Greek premier briefed the French President
on the initiatives he has undertaken and the subsequent developments
towards a cooperation between the Greek political powers in order to
safeguard the implementation of the Oct. 26 eurzone summit decision
and the country's course in the eurozone. amna
On his part Sarkozy expressed his respect for their cooperation and
PM Papandreou's work and asked that their personal contact and close
cooperation continues in the future.
[02] Major contraband cigarette syndicate broken up
AMNA--Greek police late Tuesday arrested 18 people in a sweep operation
on an organised crime syndicate smuggling contraband cigarettes, and
the operation was still ongoing on Wednesday morning.
Among the arrestees are four Harbour Corps officials, including a
high-ranking officer serving in what police said was a "key" position in
the Aegean, who are charged with providing cover for the smugglers.amna
One of the Greek police's biggest successes against organised crime,
the smuggling syndicate, which has caused tens of millions of euros in
damage to the Greek state from tax duties not attributed to the state,
was uncovered and broken up after several months of investigations.amna
According to initial information from the police and the Harbor Corps,
the unattributed tax duties from just two instances of contraband
cigarette smuggling by the syndicate, which were uncovered a few months
ago, amount to 11.5 million euros, but are just "a drop in the ocean",
police said, given the immense dimensions of the syndicate's operations
of "innumerable shiploads" of contraband cigarettes smuggled into Greece
and other European countries.
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