A "logo" on bricks of cocaine seized when a Liverpool crime syndicate was dismantled in Greece may link the suspects to a mammoth two tonne shipment of the drug.
The four British men, aged 38, 48, 45 and 52 and mostly from Merseyside, were detained in the port city of Thessaloniki on June 9, after unloading 300kg of cocaine which had been stashed in a shipment of bananas. The men were also linked to a previous 654kg shipment, seized in Calabria, Italy, in April.
A fifth Liverpool man, believed by the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to be in Colombia, is also wanted in connection to the seizures and is described as at the top of a major international cartel.
Now Greek media reports that an undercover officer submitted evidence suggesting the men are also connected to a huge two-and-a-half ton shipment also intercepted in May. According to the report, the packages containing the cocaine intercepted in Italy were stamped with the number 23, which also appeared on a huge shipment seized in May.
The report suggests the officer was attempting to provide evidence to imply the men were involved in a much wider trafficking ring. Earlier the ECHO reported that one of the men, the 45-year-old, is wanted by a British police force in connection with an unsolved murder.
Greek media have reported that the murder involved a man being "tortured and burned alive". The man on the run in South America, understood to be 41, is the brother of the 38-year-old man arrested in Thessaloniki.
He is understood to be a major priority of the American DEA. A spokeswoman for the agency said it "could not comment on ongoing investigations".
The men remain in Greek custody and have been charged with a number of offences. Under Greek privacy law their names have not been confirmed by the authorities.
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