Police officers in Greece have arrested one of their own after a high-speed chase involving a cop in his patrol car. The officer allegedly blew through a checkpoint and then tried to evade his fellow officers in the town of Igoumenitsa on the coast of the Ionian Sea. The fleeing officer lost control of his patrol car and crashed into several parked vehicles. When his friends in uniform caught him, they were shocked to discover a staggering 225 pounds of marijuana in the trunk.
Arresting officers also found an Albanian national in the car with the Greek officer. Albania sits on the northwest border of Greece and is the source of tons of illegally smuggled pot every year. Both the Albanian man and the Greek police officer have been charged with smuggling drugs into the country.
The incident started on Friday when the accused officer’s colleagues ordered him to stop and submit to a search of his vehicle. He refused and sped away. And can you blame him? He had roughly USD $675,000 worth of marijuana and an illegal alien in his car, which would probably be difficult to explain when you’re on patrol.
We don’t know the full details of the story yet, but it appears that the Albanian may have been a drug dealer, and the accused officer was transporting him and the drugs to the site where a deal was supposed to take place. The officer’s patrol partner was found several miles away hanging out in a coffee shop. The partner has also been arrested and charged with drug crimes.
Igoumenitsa is a port town on the Greek coast, and its proximity to the Albanian border makes it a hotbed for drug smuggling and human trafficking. The smuggling problem is so bad that the cops can’t even trust each other.
