Six arrests were reported on Wednesday in northern Greece after the previous day’s shooting incident in Thessaloniki’s Thermi district involving what press reports say were Greek intelligence service agents, on the one hand, and members of a Turkish criminal organization.
According to sources familiar with the incident, the assailants targeted the vehicle of a National Intelligence Service (EYP) agent who was part of an intelligence-gathering operation.
Five individuals were arrested in Thessaloniki and another in the northeast city of Komotini on drug and weapons charges, although authorities have not announced if the arrests are directly related to Tuesday’s shooting.
Tuesday’s incident occurred in the early afternoon at a gas station when a jeep carrying what authorities claim were three Turkish nationals stopped to fill up.
According to reports, another vehicle, accompanied by a motorcyclist, carrying the intelligence agents that were following the first group, stopped nearby. When the driver of the jeep spotted the surveillance, he pulled out a handgun and began firing at the direction of the second vehicle, reports state.
No injuries were reported.
The first vehicle carrying the suspects subsequently fled the scene.
The incident is the latest in a series of deadly clashes in Greece since September 2023 involving Turkey-based criminal organizations comprised of Turkish nationals and ethnic Kurds, with 10 people killed in the process, all alleged gang members that fell victim to “turf wars” that have spilled over from Turkey into Greece and western Europe.
European law enforcement officials assess that criminal networks facing prosecution and a crackdown in Turkey have increasingly “exported” their activities to neighboring countries, Western Europe, and the Gulf.
