A confidential report authored by Greek security authorities charting the activity of the Turkish mafia in Greece has issued a stern warning about the risk of its being used as a tool by secret services. The multi-page report coincides with the recent arrest of armed Turkish mobsters in Greece on two separate occasions within the space of three days. The authors of the report characterize the potential recruitment of criminal law offenders by espionage networks as an “escalating threat.
” Among other things, the report notes that Greece risks becoming a sphere for settling scores between rival groups of organized crime in Turkey, as happened in the case of the six-person murder in September 2023 in Loutsa. However, it also stressed that Turkish criminal groups can be leveraged by “politically motivated actors and intelligence services to carry out covert operations, such as conducting hybrid operations.” Organized crime has historically served as a lucrative target for secret services worldwide.
“This is an escalating threat,” says the report, stressing that Turkish criminal networks operating in the country can be “effectively instrumentalized by foreign state actors.” From the analysis of incidents in Greece involving the Turkish mafia since September 2023, common characteristics emerge regarding the methodology employed. For example, when entering Greece illegally, they claim to be members of the Kurdish PKK or supporters of the Gulen network, in order to ap.