Greek police have arrested a Syrian migrant carrying nearly 1,500 illegal pills near the Turkish frontier as the government is set to begin strengthening the border fence at Evros.
The Syrian migrant is believed to have smuggled the drugs across the Turkish border with police officers from the Alexandroupolis Drug Enforcement Agency catching and detaining him near the frontier.
After searching the Syrian, the officers were able to find 353.1 grams worth of cannabis in two separate packages and a total of 1,413 pills in two more packages. Officials also seized two mobile phones and have charged the man with importing illegal narcotics, Proto Thema reports.
The border fence along the Turkish border at Evros is also scheduled to be reinforced and expanded, with work set to start on the expansion next month.
The Greek Police (ELAS) has reached out to five major construction companies to bid for the project which will first reinforce existing fencing that was damaged by migrants and others earlier this year when Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the gates to Europe for migrants residing in Turkey.
Some of the damage to the border fence, allegedly by a European Union-funded Turkish armoured vehicle, was even caught on video and published by Greek media after being released by the Greek government.
The second part of the project will see a new border fence erected in the area near Ferres and is estimated to be around 27-kilometres long.
Greece looks to reinforcer the border before migrants return to the area, something that was promised earlier this year at the end of March by Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.
“When the coronavirus pandemic is over, we are not going to deter any immigrants who want to return to the Greek-Turkish border in Pazar,” Soylu said.