Natasha was a senior reporter for TechCrunch, from September 2012 to April 2025, based in Europe. She has also freelanced for organisations including The Guardian and the BBC. Natasha holds a First Class degree in English from Cambridge University, and an MA in journalism from Goldsmiths College, University of London. The two co-founders had previous experience in the grocery delivery business before launching Pop Market. Nick Telecki was part of Delivery Hero’s global strategy team, while Takis Malavetas is a fast grocery delivery serial entrepreneur, as co-founder of Convibo and Home Run Delivery in the UK. So after the AB Home Shop Center, which has a variety of 11,000 products and collects 2,000 orders every day, 2 to 3 new sorting centers are planned to be established in Athens and Thessaloniki, with the aim of supporting the chain’s online sales.
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In terms of alcoholic beverages, Greece is one of the EU countries most affected by the illicit market, with millions of bottles trafficked every year. One of the central76 discussion forums was Reddit’s /r/DarkNetMarkets/,777879 which has been the subject of legal investigation, as well as the Tor-based discussion forum, The Hub. Some are looking for illegal stuff they can’t buy elsewhere, like drugs or counterfeit documents. The story of dark web marketplaces kicks off with Silk Road, launched in 2011. It was the first big site where people could anonymously buy drugs using Bitcoin, and it gained a lot of attention, until it was shut down by the FBI in 2013.
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Before we took the ferry to Naxos, we spent two days in Athens, also doing not much except eating incredible food. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work. Kikilias outlined Greece’s potential as a regional energy hub, emphasizing the country’s role as an entry point for LNG from various nations, including the United States. The degree to which states have put oversight mechanisms in place to ensure against state collusion in illicit activities. Criminal actors that are embedded in, and act from within, the state’s apparatus.
Illicit trade in excise goods is also a significant problem linked to tax evasion, corruption and fraud. The illicit tobacco market is one of the most significant issues, with billions of contraband cigarettes sold annually. Greece is also a source country for parallel trade in pharmaceuticals, and the number of reported cases of medicines illegally imported from Greece, repackaged and sold to other EU countries has increased.
- The state’s ability to investigate, gather intelligence, protect and enforce adherence to its rules and procedures against organized crime.
- The judicial system in Greece is widely believed to lack independence, with corruption and political influence being pervasive issues.
- The market is also known for its listings related to financial fraud, such as phishing tools and stolen credit card information.
- Human smuggling remains one of the biggest criminal markets in Greece, amidst ongoing tensions with Türkiye, which has been accused of facilitating the travel of people to Greece.
- The degree non-state actors are allowed to engage in OC responses and their roles in supporting State efforts/ as watchdogs to governments.
Nevertheless, funding for these shelters is often provided by international organizations, rather than the state. Although the Greek government has implemented a national action plan and four hotlines to prevent human trafficking, it has not allocated sufficient resources to anti-trafficking efforts. The judicial system in Greece is widely believed to lack independence, with corruption and political influence being pervasive issues. Despite recent efforts to address these problems, including tougher penalties for active bribery and increased digitalization in the judiciary, the system still suffers from delays and inconsistent judgments. In particular, the prison system is facing significant problems, such as chronic staff shortages, overcrowding and high levels of violence and intimidation among prisoners. In fact, authorities have acknowledged that the prison system is a hotbed of organized crime and under the control of the Greek prison mafia.
H Of 8 Countries In Southern Europe-1
Analysts at S&P Capital IQ recommend that investors “overweight,” or load up on health care, industrial, and information technology stocks. And it has an “underweight” recommendation on telecommunication services, materials, and utilities. As for the financial stocks, S&P has upgraded the sector to “market weight” from an underweight rating. In the health care sector, among S&P Capital IQ’s top picks are United Healthcare Group (UNH), Gilead (GILD), and Celgene (CELG). In the industrials, among S&P’s top picks are General Electric (GE), Carlisle (CSL), and Chicago Bridge & Iron (CFBI).
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This situation is aggravated by the proliferation of new websites targeting the Greek audience, many of which operate under the .gr domain and advertise in Greek. Launched in September 2022, Torzon Market operates on the Tor network and features over 11,600 illegal products, including drugs and hacking tools. It enhances buyer transparency by importing vendor feedback with PGP proof. Torzon offers a premium account option for additional benefits and is valued at approximately $15 million, accepting payments in Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR). Others are looking for stolen data, hacking services, or even banned books and political content. Despite the fact Archetyp had clearly raised the bar on security on the dark web, Operation Deep Sentinel—a collaborative effort between law enforcement agencies in six countries supported by Europol and Eurojust—took down the market.
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The legal framework governing NGO registration in Greece hinders civil society organizations from providing services and monitoring the treatment of refugees and displaced people. The registration process is not in line with European and international standards on the freedom of association, and its constant revision leads to confusion, misunderstanding and legal uncertainty. This, along with low social trust and a lack of incentives for donations, has weakened civil society. The Greek government’s commitment to combating corruption and organized crime is questioned, with critics arguing that the government’s anti-crime policy prioritizes combating visible street crime over the activities of criminal organizations. The opposition alleges that police and security departments are understaffed and lack operational plans to combat organized crime, which has led to the country becoming a hub for gangs. Furthermore, the ongoing conflict between Türkiye and Greece has created internal fears of the possibility of Türkiye’s economic crisis being exported to the Aegean.
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To address these issues, the government has pursued aggressive economic and investment-friendly reforms to adopt international best practices and cut red tape. Despite the fact that Greece has established a secondary market for its non-performing loans, the Greek banking system still holds the largest ratio of non-performing loans in the EU. This constrains the domestic financial sector’s ability to finance the national economy. The Greek police intelligence division is responsible for combating all forms of crime, including serious and organized crime and terrorism. However, it faces several challenges, such as performing duties not officially prescribed in policing, an increase in criminality due to economic and migrant crises, and the failure to revise the police educational structure for almost two decades. Furthermore, trust between law enforcement and the public is still low due to incidents of excessive use of force.
The ownership of guns also carries a certain cultural status in Crete, resulting in a market for illicit arms. Organized crime groups involved in various criminal activities are typically the suppliers of illicit arms in Greece, with independent actors also working on an ad-hoc basis. Guns are smuggled into Greece by air, sea and land corridors in the south and east, mainly from North Africa and the Levant. State-embedded actors are a significant problem in Greece, as police officers have often been identified as members of criminal organizations. The lack of prosecutions carried out for crimes such as drug trafficking highlights the strong relationships organized criminal groups have historically had with political elites and magistrates. In addition, corrupt politicians award public procurement processes to companies that have bribed them.
Examples include the sale of high-quality products with low risk for contamination (including lacing and cutting), vendor-tested products, sharing of trip reports, and online discussion of harm reduction practices. Loose criminal networks are prevalent in Greece, with hundreds of known domestic crime bosses operating in the country. These groups engage in every criminal market and are involved in terrorist groups; they have also infiltrated the Greek banking system.
In that case, organized crime groups could take advantage of the situation to carry out activities such as concealing and transporting potential terrorists into Europe. Greece is primarily a transit country for the cocaine trade, with Latin American criminal groups using it as a gateway to enter European markets. Nonetheless, there is also considerable domestic demand for cocaine, primarily in larger cities such as Athens, Thessaloniki and Piraeus.
Additionally, access to information remains poor, and administrative controls and penal investigations are inefficient. Tax evasion and financial crimes committed by government officials, civilians and even NGOs are still widespread. Wildlife crime is also an issue in Greece, as the country serves as a transit point for illegal wildlife trafficking from Northern Africa and Caspian countries to Western Europe.
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Whilst a great many products are sold, drugs dominate the numbers of listings, with the drugs including cannabis, MDMA, modafinil,108109110 LSD, cocaine, and designer drugs. N 2025, dark web websites frequently change domains and are often short-lived. Accessing them may require .onion links and the Tor browser, but caution is advised due to legality and cybersecurity risks.
