High level drugs traffickers have been flooding Europe with tonnes of cocaine branded with a fake logo referencing basketball megastar LeBron James.
Police in Greece have seized five shipments of cocaine worth tens of millions of Euros all stamped with the number 23, which is James' number on the basketball court. According to reports in Greece the cocaine packaging contains the logo while the powder blocks themselves are stamped with the initials NBA, in a fake reference to the National Basketball Association.
Around 300kg of that cocaine was seized when four British men, at least three who are from Merseyside, were arrested in the Greek northern city of Thessaloniki on June 9 when armed police stormed a luxury villa. The drugs were seized alongside a handgun, ammunition, mobile phones and geo-location equipment.
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The illicit load had been hidden in a shipment of bananas from South America, which had arrived in Greece via Calabria, Italy. According to reports in Greece, all the bricks of cocaine in that shipment were branded with the LA Lakers star's number.
The Liverpool men are said to have let slip to an undercover officer that they had a direct line to the suppliers of the Lebron cocaine. Kilos of the drug with the same brand have been seized in varying quantities throughout Greece.
Another significant seizure, involving a British suspect, occurred at the end of May at a hotel in Loutraki. Greek police find 58kg of coke in a room rented by a 45-year-old British man, who was described as normally a permanent resident of Malaga in Spain.
All of the drugs were stamped with the same logo referencing James.
Under Greek privacy laws, the Liverpool men arrested in Thessaloniki have not been officially named by the authorities. However it has been confirmed one suspect, aged 44, is also wanted for questioning by West Midlands Police in connection with the brutal murder of Polish national Tomasz Samel, 45, who was kidnapped from his Birmingham home and set on fire in 2019.
The Greek authorities, who conducted the raids in co-operation with the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Italian customs, say that a fifth man from Liverpool is also wanted but is believed to be in Colombia. It has been reported he is the brother of one of the men in custody.
The case followed the infiltration of the group by an undercover officer, who convinced them he could remove the drugs from the port in Thessaloniki and deliver it to their rented villa for a fee.
The group apparently told the officer that they were personally acquainted with the crime syndicate supplying the 'Lebron' coke, which they had been co-operating with.
The case remains pending.
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