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Greek police seize 3.5 tonnes of illegal refrigerant

GREECE: The Greek police have intercepted a truck carrying nearly 3.5 tonnes of illegal refrigerant, including the banned HCFC R22.

Very little information has so far been released by the police but the seizure was said to have been carried out yesterday near Ioannina, a city in northern Greece near the borders with Albania and Macedonia. 

The truck, intercepted on the main road between Ioannina and Athens, was found to contain 263 cylinders of refrigerant, containing nearly 3.5 tonnes of illegal gas.

The authorities have not revealed what gas was involved but photographs suggest cylinders of the high GWP refrigerant R404A and large quantities of banned HCFC R22. All the gas also appears to be contained in illegal non-refillable cylinders.

The driver of the vehicle was described as a “foreigner” but his nationality was not revealed. A second non-national thought to be involved was arrested in a nearby parked car. 

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