Police arrested a 22-year-old Syrian migrant in the Evros region near the Greek border with Turkey in possession of ten Turkish-made Zoraki pistols.
The arrest took place on Tuesday in the village of Gemisti, which lies just minutes away from the border with Turkey. According to investigators, the migrant was also found with 8,000 ecstasy pills.
His arrest was as a result of a sting operation, during which an undercover Greek security officer posed as a buyer interested in purchasing firearms and drugs for €14,000.
The Hellenic Police (ELAS) say that the seizure is just one of many of Turkish-made weapons in the last several weeks, including an operation involving the European police agency Europol in November, the newspaper I Kathimerini reported on Thursday.
Before the Chinese coronavirus outbreak, the Evros region saw tens of thousands of migrants attempt to storm the border after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the gates in February.
While the number of migrants attempting to enter Greece illegally has declined considerably since the beginning of the pandemic, the region still sees reports of attempted crossings, with Greek media claimed that Turkish authorities were helping migrants to cross the border as recently as September.
During the same month, police in Evros launched an investigation into 15 fires that broke out in just 48 hours, after several migrants were arrested on the island of Lesbos accused of burning down the notorious Moria migrant camp.
In October, CNN Greece claimed that border officials had spotted five men carrying automatic weapons in the border area near Gemisti and speculated they were Turkish soldiers in civilian clothing who may have been facilitating illegal migration.
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