Liverpool 'cartel' go on trial in Greece over £42 million cocaine plot
Members of an alleged drug trafficking cartel thought to be responsible for 10% of the cocaine trade in Europe have gone on trial in Greece.
The four men, John Ellis, Anthony Bennett, Stephen Wray and Neil Jones, are aged between 46 and 52 and all come from the Liverpool area.
They were arrested in June 2022 during an armed raid at a luxury rented villa overlooking the port city of Thessaloniki.
The Greek police carried out the raid after 300kg of cocaine was seized from a shipment of bananas sent from the Italian city of Calabria, the criminal territory of the Ndrangheta mafia clan.
According to the Greek authorities, one of the men attempted to grab an officer's gun during the operation, but was restrained.
Alongside hundreds of blocks of cocaine, Greek police seized a pistol and bullets, radio and positional equipment and more than 10 mobile phones.
A fifth man, Ryan Ellis, understood to be John's brother, was also charged in his absence.
The men were said to be linked to another huge shipment of cocaine, around 700kg, which had arrived from South America via Italy.
One of the men, Wray, was also absent from the courtroom on Wednesday 28 September after suffering an unspecified medical episode the court heard.
The raids followed a lengthy investigation involving the American Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Italian customs officers and Greek Police into an international drug trafficking ring sourcing cocaine in South America.
The Greek authorities have alleged the organised crime group was responsible for up to 10% of Europe's cocaine trade.
Dr Anna Sergi, Professor of Criminology & Organised Crime at the University of Essex, and an expert in European mafia groups, said the alleged involvement of British men in the trafficking of cocaine through Calabria was "puzzling".
She added: "On a systematic level there has been no sign of any partnership between the 'Ndrangheta, or Cosa Nostra [A Sicilian based mafia group] or any of the big Italian mafia and British organised crime groups.
"I ran a project looking at this and Britain did not seem to have been infiltrated by the 'Ndrangheta, unlike almost every other country in Europe."
One of the men is also wanted in connection with the murder of Tomasz Samel, 45, who was kidnapped from his home in Handsworth, Birmingham, at 8.45am on 27 March 2019, by men posing as Interpol agents.
West Midlands Police say Mr Samel was escorted into a White Peugeot Boxer van and driven around 80 miles to West Lancashire.
He was found with horrific injuries after desperately banging on the door of a house in Bickerstaffe for help.
Mr Samel was treated at the specialist burns unit in Whiston Hospital, where he was found to have sustained 75% burns. He died on 21 June 2019.
The case has been adjourned until a later date.