{"id":24008,"date":"2026-10-21T06:45:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T06:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/21\/police-arrest-19-over-e1m-paiania-haul\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T06:45:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T06:45:50","slug":"police-arrest-19-over-e1m-paiania-haul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/21\/police-arrest-19-over-e1m-paiania-haul\/","title":{"rendered":"Police Arrest 19 Over \u20ac1m Paiania Haul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-first=\"A\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>ATHENS, October 2026 \u2014 Police have arrested 19 people over a copper cable theft operation that allegedly stripped 25 kilometres of cable, worth more than \u20ac1 million, from a French company\u2019s worksite in Paiania.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officers carried out simultaneous raids in Attica and in Boeotia, north-west of Athens, after obtaining arrest warrants for all 19 suspects, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The worksite lies in the Mesogeia area of East Attica, east of central Athens. However, police did not name the French company.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How the copper cable theft allegedly worked<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Investigators believe the gang behind the copper cable theft entered the site at night and removed large quantities of copper cable over time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gct-readmore\">Read more: Greece Police Bust AI Voice Cloning Gang in \u20ac1 Million Scam Operation<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suspects then allegedly loaded the cable onto trucks they had also stolen. They drove the loads to isolated areas, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There, they burned off the outer insulation to recover the copper, which they could then sell, investigators said. The length and value of the stolen cable are police estimates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Security camera footage proved crucial to the case. In addition, investigators lifted telephone confidentiality to map the group\u2019s activity and identify each suspect.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Arrests in Attica and Boeotia<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officers from the Paiania security police led the operation, with a judicial officer present. Two OPKE rapid-response police teams also took part.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The people arrested come from Greece, Albania, Bulgaria and Bangladesh. Police have not released their names or ages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Searches continued late on 20 October for other members of the alleged network, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Copper cable theft has hit Greek infrastructure before. In August, thieves took telecom cables from a civil aviation facility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier, in December 2025, police arrested two men in Glyfada over copper taken from a power transformer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Police will take the 19 suspects before a prosecutor. The <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.astynomia.gr\/\">Hellenic Police<\/a> have not yet said what charges the suspects now face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Source: Proto Thema<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!--[googlesitekit-end-of-content]--><\/p>\n<aside class=\"gct-related\">\n<h2>Related coverage<\/h2>\n<\/aside>\n<footer class=\"article-tags entry-footer\">\n<div>\n\t\t<strong>Tags:<\/strong><br \/>\n\t\tarrests, Athens, Attica, Boeotia, copper cable theft, copper theft, crime in greece, East Attica, Greece, Greece news, Greek news, greek news now, greek news on demand, greek news today, Hellenic Police, Mesogeia, metal theft, organised crime, Paiania\t<\/div>\n<\/footer>\n<div class=\"category_container author-information\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<section id=\"authorpage\" class=\"authorpage\">\n\t\t\t\t<img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e431a0aaf2dcb7e221a3bd95d4b4996106e91f12afa178bba01dd45d1cdacc01?s=164&amp;r=g\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e431a0aaf2dcb7e221a3bd95d4b4996106e91f12afa178bba01dd45d1cdacc01?s=328&amp;r=g 2x\" class=\"avatar avatar-164 photo lazyload\" height=\"164\" width=\"164\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"author-content\">\n<h5>Athens Bureau<\/h5>\n<p>Athens Bureau is Greek City Times\u2019 news desk in Athens, reporting on Greek politics, society, economy, culture, and breaking national news for readers in Greece and the diaspora.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/2026\/10\/21\/copper-cable-theft\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ATHENS, October 2026 \u2014 Police have arrested 19 people over a copper cable theft operation that allegedly stripped 25 kilometres of cable, worth more than \u20ac1 million, from a French company\u2019s worksite in Paiania. Officers carried out simultaneous raids in Attica and in Boeotia, north-west of Athens, after obtaining arrest warrants for all 19 suspects, &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Police Arrest 19 Over \u20ac1m Paiania Haul\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/21\/police-arrest-19-over-e1m-paiania-haul\/#more-24008\" aria-label=\"Read more about Police Arrest 19 Over \u20ac1m Paiania Haul\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/copper-cable-close-up.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}