On Wednesday at noon, the Port Authority of Samos received reports about a suspicious speedboat traveling quickly from the Turkish coast towards the southeastern shore of Agathonisi.

In response, a patrol boat from the L.S.-EL.AKT. (P.L.S.), which was conducting a scheduled police patrol, was dispatched to the area. Upon arrival, the patrol boat spotted the speedboat approaching the coast. As soon as the foreign passengers noticed the patrol boat, three of them jumped into the sea and swam ashore.

Subsequently, the Coast Guard patrol car safely immobilized the speedboat and recovered 16 foreigners, who were safely transported to the port of Samos and then handed over to officers of the Samos/TDM Police Directorate to be transferred to a Closed Dock.

Upon further control, the three foreigners who had already left the shore were found on land by officers of the Agathonisi Police Station, while one of them, aged 17 years old, was identified as the pilot of the dinghy and was arrested for violation of article 83 of Law 3386/2005 “Illegal entry into the country” and article 25 of Law 5038/2023 “Trafficking of third-country nationals in Greece”. The speedboat was seized by the Samos Port Authority, which is conducting a preliminary investigation.