Alexandros Angelopoulos: From night club bouncer to cocaine baron

The young man sitting at the entrance of a club on Syngrou Avenue on a cold winter night nearly four decades ago was lost in thought.

He wanted to live well, to see other countries, to do many things, and above all to make money—lots of money—by any means necessary.

As it turned out, the means ultimately did not matter to the young doorman Alexandros Angelopoulos, later known as the “Escobar of the Balkans” or the “Greek Escobar.”

He began his career in the underworld as a sailor on supply boats that transported contraband cigarettes from Albania to Italy, along with weapons.

The first step had been taken, though he likely never imagined what lay ahead. A few years later, he met a charming brothel owner in Antwerp who fell madly in love with Alekos.

From the Belgian city that hosts the country’s largest port, Angelopoulos dug himself even deeper into a criminal career that had it all: arms trafficking destined for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, massive shipments of cocaine from Latin America, the purchase of football teams, investments in the hospitality sector, and the laundering of millions through OPAP gambling.

The raid by French commandos on the vessel Ourania A marked yet another chapter in the extraordinary life of a boy from Nea Poros, Pieria—the son of a police officer.

From Nicaragua to Colombia

It sounds strange, to say the least, to hear the name Alexandros Angelopoulos spoken in Katerini and the wider prefecture of Pieria and to hear good things about a man who was importing tons of cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela into Europe.

In fact, whenever he was granted temporary leave from prison and returned to Greece for a few days, friends and acquaintances would rush to see him and share a glass of wine. Some even traveled from Larissa to meet “Fat,” as he was affectionately called.

After supplying the so-called “cigarette shops,” he entered a network primarily involved in arms trafficking to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, facilitated by his contact with the country’s honorary consul in Athens.

Payment for the weapons did not come in cash, but in large quantities of cocaine, which the network distributed across Europe for enormous profits.

When the group’s Serbian leader was killed under mysterious circumstances, Alekos took over the reins, driven by an insatiable hunger for power and money.

It is estimated that by the time of his first arrest in 2004, he had successfully brought more than ten cocaine shipments into the market, generating vast profits.

By the mid-1990s, he had settled in Antwerp, Belgium, where he lived for years and built an extensive network through his relationship with the brothel owner.

She allegedly had the right connections for high-risk operations at Belgium’s largest port. Many types of people passed through her establishment, and the then 34-year-old Angelopoulos soon founded a ship-supply company.

In reality, its vessels served a different purpose. Instead of supplying merchant ships, they were “supplied” with cocaine shipments from Colombia and Venezuela.

DEA agents in Antwerp, in cooperation with Belgian police, informed Greek authorities and the Financial Crime Unit (SDOE) that they were placing “Fat” under close surveillance.

A detailed investigation revealed that the self-styled “businessman” owned four fishing-boat companies registered in Kyllini, held shares in branded clothing companies, and had founded a brokerage firm named Honor.

At the same time, he purchased his hometown football club, Poseidon Nea Poron, which astonishingly reached the Second National League within just three years.

Laundering Through OPAP and the Senegal Thriller

In 2002, Greek authorities were informed by the DEA’s Athens office that the Greek Escobar had unloaded 5.5 tons of cocaine off the coast of Katerini using a speedboat, transporting it to a warehouse in Litochoro.

The information arrived too late. The investigation yielded no results, and a year later Dutch authorities searched two of Angelopoulos’s fishing vessels—Helix and Triton—but found nothing.

According to one version of events, Angelopoulos had been tipped off about the raid. Another suggests that he sensed something was wrong and ordered the cargo dumped into the Atlantic, instructing his ships to avoid the Spanish coast.

The cocaine shipment from Colombia had already been paid for in full, at cartel prices, to ensure smooth future transactions.

At the same time, Angelopoulos was declaring enormous gambling winnings through OPAP’s “Pame Stoixima,” reporting €1.3 million in 2002 and €1.5 million in 2003—amounts that raised strong suspicions of money laundering at the SDOE.

By 2004, feeling untouchable, the “Fat Man” prepared another shipment. This time, luck ran out.

A Coast Guard informant spotted the fishing vessel Africa 1, which he recognized as belonging to Angelopoulos. Although officially registered under another owner, crew members later identified “Fat” as the man who had paid them in cash to install satellite navigation and communications systems.

Africa 1 departed from Keratsini on May 15. Days later, under surveillance by Greek and international authorities, it loaded 5.4 tons of cocaine off the coast of Senegal, transferred from an old torpedo boat.

With access to the vessel’s satellite phone, American, British, Greek, and Spanish authorities coordinated the operation, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Arrest and Aftermath

The interception took place near Gibraltar by the Spanish Coast Guard vessel Petrela, which, according to an investigative report by Vice, carried a Greek police officer, an SDOE official, and a DEA agent from Athens.

On July 13, 2004, the vessel was immobilized about 100 miles off the Spanish coast. Two suspects were arrested in Athens, including a motorcycle dealer from Piraeus; another individual was released due to insufficient evidence.

Angelopoulos went into hiding but took a risk in August. At Stuttgart Airport, he was arrested and finally confronted by his pursuers—Yiannis Rahovitsas of the Narcotics Division and George Papadopoulos, nicknamed “Dracula,” of the SDOE.

From the outset, he denied all charges and blamed another Greek drug trafficker, who at the time was imprisoned in Spain for smuggling 3.5 tons of cocaine.

While in custody, Angelopoulos faced additional charges, including large-scale money laundering through OPAP winnings. One indictment stated that he had been paid €36 million in advance for transporting a 5.4-ton cocaine shipment.

He allegedly instructed his brother-in-law, Christos Samaras, to bury the cash in a remote area of Litochoro. Samaras later dug up €500 notes and regularly filled out betting slips at a specific OPAP agency.

Angelopoulos was initially sentenced to life imprisonment. On appeal, however, his sentence was reduced to 22 years, citing the mitigating factor of a previously “honest life.”

In 2014, a court controversially ordered the return of a large portion of the seized money and assets. Soon after, the Paraskevopoulos law led to Angelopoulos’s release after serving just 11 years.

The prosecutor appealed, and in June 2015 the Supreme Court finalized a decision sending the “Escobar of the Balkans” back to prison.

The day before the ruling, Angelopoulos had already been released, sparking widespread media coverage. Three months later, on September 22, he returned to familiar surroundings: A prison cell in Agios Stefanos Prison, Patras.