Operation ENTOS Police Raid Tracker (Greece)

25 May 2026

Investigative documentation of the militarized police campaign against Romani communities in Greece (2025–2026)

The ENTOS operation is the largest case of collective punishment and ethnic profiling seen in Europe for decades; fundamentally violating the principle of individual criminal culpability.

Rather than targeting specific suspects based on credible intelligence, the operation treats entire Romani communities as inherently criminal. The sheer scale of the raids – often involving dozens of armed officers, K-9 units, and surveillance drones entering residential areas – is grossly disproportionate to the offenses being investigated, which are predominantly non-violent administrative violations like electricity theft or lack of identification documents.

By stopping hundreds of individuals, searching dozens of homes, and arresting community members for minor infractions in a single sweep, the police are effectively penalising an entire neighbourhood for the alleged actions of a few. This tactic creates an atmosphere of terror and humiliation, reinforcing the stigma that Romani people are a criminal caste rather than citizens with rights. The recruitment of Roma as "special guards" further exacerbates this dynamic by forcing community members to police their own neighbours, fracturing social cohesion and exploiting vulnerability to enforce state control.

Official Launch and Scope

• Operation Name: "ENTOS" (meaning "Within").
• Authority: Launched by the Ministry for Citizen Protection and executed by the Hellenic Police (ELAS).
• Objective: To target Roma-majority living areas identified as "hotspots of illegality" and high crime rates.
• Deployment: At least 473 police officers have been mobilized for the operation, in 152 localities where Roma live in 25 areas of the country.
• Strategy: The plan involves systematic raids, 24-hour uniformed police presence within Romani neighbourhoods, preventive checks on vehicles, individuals, and homes, and immediate response to reported crimes. In addition, it allows for the recruitment of ‘special guards’ from within the Romani community, as well as ‘mediators’ to act as intelligence gatherers.
• Announcement: The policing plan was announced in October 2025 and rolled out between 8th – 15th November 2025.

List of targeted raids on Romani communities: DOWNLOAD HERE [Last Update: 25.05.2026]

The ERRC and the Greek Helsinki Monitor are tracking multiple raids targeting Roma-majority neighbourhoods throughout several Greek regions.

This list combines all identified probable Roma-targeted police operations identified through a systematic review of ELAS (Hellenic Police) press releases and corroborating Greek-language media reporting between June 2025 and May 2026.

The following assessment was compiled based on:

• Repeated use of the phrase “ομάδες κοινωνικής ομοιογένειας” (“socially homogeneous groups”)
• Operations in known Romani neighbourhoods
• Cases of electricity theft and administrative offence enforcement
• Mentions of mass stop-and-search policing
• Use of riot police, OPKE units, K-9 units and surveillance technologies
• Local media reports explicitly identifying Roma communities targeted in operations

The Rhythm of Repression: A Statistical Analysis of Operation ENTOS

The data reveals that Operation ENTOS is not a series of sporadic "anti-crime" interventions, but a systematic, high-frequency security regime.

1. The Acceleration Curve While the operation began with a steady cadence in late 2025, the intensity has surged dramatically in the spring of 2026.
   • Phase 1 (Sept 2025 – Mar 2026): The operation averaged 1.4 raids per week (approx. one every 5 days).
   • Phase 2 (Apr 1 – May 21, 2026): The frequency tripled. In just seven weeks, 33 raids were executed, averaging 4.7 raids per week—or roughly one major militarized intervention every 36 hours.
   • Implication: The state is no longer reacting to specific incidents; it is saturating targeted communities with near-constant force.
2. Geographic Concentration The raids are not random. They cluster in specific "hotspots" that are repeatedly targeted, confirming the "collective suspicion" model.
   • The Peloponnese Corridor: Argolida, Corinthia, and Laconia account for ~45% of all raids. These municipalities are subjected to rolling operations, often appearing in the police logs 2–3 times within the same month.
   • The Northern Front: The Thessaloniki region (Diavata, Chalkidona, Dendropotamos, Peraia) has seen a sharp increase in activity since April, with raids occurring almost daily in late May.
   • The Attica Belt: Western Attica (Aspropyrgos, Zefyri, Fyli) remains a constant target, with raids occurring weekly regardless of the season.
3. The "Disparity of Force" Metric The data exposes a stark contradiction between the scale of the response and the severity of the alleged crimes.
   • Offence Profile: 85% of the documented raids cite "electricity theft," "administrative violations," or "lack of ID" as the primary justification.
   • Response Profile: These minor infractions trigger deployments of OPKE tactical units, organized crime squads, K-9 units, drones, and riot police.
   • Arrest Efficiency: In operations involving 50+ officers and drones, the arrest rate is often low (e.g., 2 arrests in Fyli for noise and a wooden bat; 10 arrests in Aspropyrgos for electricity theft).
   • Conclusion: The primary function of these operations is not law enforcement, but visibility and intimidation. The "crime" is merely the pretext for the militarized presence.
4. The Language of Exclusion The police press releases rely on a consistent set of coded euphemisms to mask ethnic targeting while maintaining plausible deniability.
   • "Socially Homogeneous Groups" (ομάδες κοινωνικής ομοιογένειας): Appears in 60% of the Peloponnese operations.
   • "Hotspots of Illegality": Used to justify the deployment of "special guards" and "mediators" within the community.
   • "Preventive Policing": The standard justification for raids where no specific suspect is named, effectively criminalizing the entire neighbourhood.

Historical Context: A Legacy of Violent Policing

The ENTOS operation is not an isolated incident but the latest manifestation of a decades-long history of state-sanctioned violence and discrimination against Roma in Greece.

Since the 1990s, Greek police have frequently utilized "clean-up" operations to forcibly evict Roma from urban centres, often under the guise of public order or crime prevention. These operations have historically been marked by excessive force, arbitrary detentions, and the destruction of property.

In recent years, several Greek Roma have been shot dead by police officers including 18-year-old Nikos Sabanis who was murdered by some 30-40 gunshots in Perama in 2019, 16-year-old Kostas Frangoulis was shot in the head for not paying a €20 petrol station bill in 2022, and a 17-year-old Romani boy shot by police for failing to stop at a checkpoint in 2023.

The European Court of Human Rights and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has repeatedly condemned Greece for failing to protect Roma from discrimination and violence, yet the systemic patterns of ethnic profiling remain entrenched in police culture. The ENTOS operation represents a dangerous escalation of these historical abuses, codifying ethnic targeting into a formal state operation.

Political Climate: The "Internal Security" Agenda

The launch of ENTOS coincides with a broader political shift in Greece under the New Democracy government, which has prioritized a "law and order" agenda centred on internal security. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has consistently framed migration and minority issues through a security lens, emphasising the need to combat "organized crime" and secure borders. This political climate has created fertile ground for operations like ENTOS, where the distinction between legitimate law enforcement and ethnic profiling is blurred by the government's narrative of national security.