Greek broadcaster SKAI has exposed how Turkish criminal networks are using Greece as a transit corridor to flood Central...

Greek broadcaster SKAI has exposed how Turkish criminal networks are using Greece as a transit corridor to flood Central and Northern Europe with untraceable "ghost guns," fake pistols manufactured in the Konya region of Turkey that sell for up to 3,500 euros each once they reach European buyers. In October 2025, Greek border police stopped 15 Turkish nationals crossing illegally near the village of Tychero in Evros. Hidden in their bags were 147 pistols and firearm components. According to their statements, a smuggler had tasked them with delivering the weapons to a contact waiting inside Greece. The guns are near-perfect replicas of name-brand pistols from manufacturers like Glock and Browning, but they carry no factory markings, no traceable serial numbers, and many share identical serial numbers across batches, making them almost impossible to trace back to a crime scene. Nikos Tsiatis, head of the forensic labs unit at the Greek criminal investigations directorate, confirmed these identifying features are what law enforcement looks for first. Fotis Douitsas, head of Greece's organized crime unit, told SKAI that 280 of these weapons have been seized in the past 18 months alone. The Hellenic Coast Guard also intercepted 61 ghost guns aboard a vessel belonging to a Turkish national off the coast of Alexandroupolis last year. A raid on a central Athens apartment in late 2024 uncovered a suitcase holding 49 Glock replicas after two members of a Turkish criminal organization were arrested there. The weapons typically move through Greece and Bulgaria, sometimes Romania, concealed in hidden compartments inside international freight trucks. A gun that costs between 200 and 350 euros in Turkey fetches 3,000 to 3,500 euros on European black markets. Douitsas says five to six major Turkish criminal organizations are currently active in Greece, with roughly 500 Turkish nationals held in Greek prisons. Their leaders reportedly live in luxury villas stretching from Crete to Cannes, driving expensive cars. The operation extends beyond Greece. A late March joint operation by Spanish and Bulgarian authorities, coordinated by Europol, led to 18 arrests across Barcelo...