What police were looking for in Corfu Prison and what they found
Nine improvised knives, four mobile phones, three chargers and two SIM cards were seized during a nighttime police operation at Corfu Prison. Photo: Regional Police Department
CORFU. While Corfu was celebrating with the Varkarola festivities and a concert by Vassilis Papakonstantinou, a large number of police raided the prison. The scale of the operation suggests that the authorities were looking for something: nine improvised knives, mobile phones and SIM cards were among the items found, and eight people were arrested.
As the fireworks of the Varkarola lit up the waters of Corfu and, on the other side of the town, Vassilis Papakonstantinou was performing for his audience, just a few hundred metres away a completely different kind of nighttime operation was underway. Heavily armed police units entered the gates of Corfu Prison and, together with prison officers, began searching cells and communal areas.
The timing and, above all, the scale of the operation hardly suggest a routine inspection. The involvement of the Sub-Directorate for the Prosecution and Investigation of Crimes, the Special Police Operations Unit (OPKE), the DIAS motorcycle police, the Police Support Unit and a sniffer dog points to a coordinated and carefully planned operation. Clearly, the authorities were looking for something. And the findings showed that there were grounds for the mobilisation.
The searches uncovered seven improvised knives, four mobile phones, three chargers and two SIM cards in the possession of inmates. Two more improvised knives were found in a communal area. That makes a total of nine improvised knives inside the prison.
Eight inmates were arrested and charges were filed against them, with the detainees being brought before the competent prosecutorial authority.
The focus now extends beyond the items that were found. With nine improvised knives and four mobile phones discovered inside the facility, questions are also being raised about what preceded the raid: What information had reached the authorities? What exactly were they looking for? And was there any indication that something was being planned inside the prison?
The police's official statement does not answer these questions. However, the composition and scale of the force mobilised on Monday night suggest that the raid was anything but random.
GIORGOS KATSAITIS
