Drug boss nicknamed “The Greek Escobar” caught in €100 million cocaine bust

By Gangsters Inc. Editors

It was a maritime takedown straight out of a narco-thriller. Earlier this month, the French Navy, working in tandem with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Greek police, intercepted a fishing vessel in the Atlantic Ocean near Martinique. Police arrested a Bulgarian national and four Greeks. Among them was a very big fish: 61-year-old Alexandros Angelopoulos, a veteran trafficker known back home as “The Greek Escobar.”

Angelopoulos isn’t some upstart smuggler. He’s been embedded in Greece’s criminal underworld since the 1980s, armed with a rap sheet that reads like a career résumé in organized crime. To Greek authorities, he’s long been considered one of the country’s most dangerous, and leading, underworld figures.

READ: Profile: Greek crime boss Alexandros Angelopoulos

The alleged boss had only been out of prison since 2024, having served 20 years for similar crimes. He was busted by the DEA back then as well. Apparently, this life of crime is all he knows and wants.

Cocaine worth’ €100 million

Authorities recovered 136 packages weighing between 3.4 and 4.7 metric tons. Estimated street value: over €100 million. The cocaine, investigators say, was destined for the Greek market, timed perfectly for peak holiday demand.

Back in court, Angelopoulos went with the familiar playbook: Total denial. “I reject the charges. The vessel where the drugs were found does not belong to me,” he told the judge.

READ: Profile: Greek crime boss Panagiotis Vlastos

The judge wasn’t buying it, though. Angelopoulos and three co-defendants were ordered into pretrial detention. A fifth suspect was released under strict conditions.

Case files show Angelopoulos’ organization operated through a sprawling international network. Prosecutors say the group operated with cartel-level professionalism, relying on the so-called “mother ship” method: massive drug loads transported across ocean routes, then transferred at sea to smaller fishing boats operating under a legitimate cover.

READ: “King of the Night” – Profile of Greek crime boss Vassilis Stefanakos

The idea was simple: stay invisible.

The organization was layered and deliberately opaque, using front men and shell companies to register and manage vessels, complicating financial and ownership trails.

A tip brings in the DEA and starts Operation Ippalos

The takedown, codenamed Operation Ippalos, began in October 2024 after a tip from the DEA’s Athens office. Using advanced analytics and digital surveillance, Greek authorities mapped out the network piece by piece. The fishing boat ultimately seized had departed Nea Michaniona two months earlier, bound for Venezuela.

READ: Global drug kingpin’s inner circle taken down – One of the leaders of Europe’s “Super Cartel” feels the heat

Greek Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis hailed the operation as a major blow to professional drug traffickers, saying it prevented tons of “poison” from flooding European streets.

The investigation is far from over. Authorities are still hunting fugitive members across Latin America and Europe. “We will continue the fight against criminal groups involved in these illegal and abhorrent activities,” Chrysochoidis vowed.

For now, one of Greece’s most notorious traffickers is back behind bars. Perhaps for the rest of his life.