Piraeus Port: arrest of 43-year-old on drug charges

The Piraeus Port Authority announced the arrest of a 43-year-old for drug trafficking, following a check carried out on the afternoon of Thursday 24 September 2026 at the port of Piraeus. According to the port authority’s announcement, the operation was part of a routine inspection of passengers and vehicles boarding a passenger-vehicle ferry, one of the daily routes connecting Piraeus with Aegean islands. Such inspections are carried out regularly at the port, as part of broader surveillance of passenger and freight traffic passing daily through the facilities, with the port authorities maintaining steady presence at boarding and disembarking points throughout the day.

During the inspection, a drug detection dog spotted a packaged quantity of cannabis totalling 1,030 grams. The discovery led the port authorities to arrest the 43-year-old, who is alleged to have attempted to traffic the quantity via the vessel. According to the announcement, a search followed at his residence in Paros, where 20 lorazepam tablets without a prescription were found, 86.6 grams of white crystalline substance of unknown composition and 20 tablets of unknown chemical origin. The composition and origin of the last two substances have not been publicly determined, as the port authority’s announcement describes them as substances of unknown composition and unknown chemical origin respectively, pending further examination.

The case highlights the role of Piraeus port as a transit point between the capital and the islands, where inspections of passengers and vehicles are part of the port authority’s daily operations. The combined picture from the point of arrest in Piraeus and the search at the residence in Paros shows that the case is not limited to a single location, something that often complicates further investigation of such cases by the port authorities. The presence of a detection dog at the inspection point remains a key tool for identifying packaged quantities that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by visual inspection of luggage and vehicles, particularly during periods of increased passenger traffic to the islands.

The investigation into the case is being conducted by the Piraeus Port Authority. The 43-year-old is accused of drug trafficking, with the case at the stage of investigation and no court decision yet issued. The authorities have not announced further details regarding the origin of the substances or any involvement of third parties, while the investigation is expected to continue to clarify the exact nature of the unknown substances found at the suspect’s residence in Paros. The case remains open, with the port authority not providing, in the published announcement, a timeline for completion of the investigation.