Police raided Roma camps west of Athens Thursday and arrested 16 people for allegedly illegally hooking their homes up to the power grid in the latest of a series of similar operations, authorities said.
A police statement said that electricians accompanying officers on the raids in the Aspropyrgos area disconnected and removed a total of 2.4 kilometers of cables used to draw power from the grid.
The 16 people arrested faced charges of stealing electricity, the statement said. Another 18 people stopped during the raids – in which police also employed a drone – were fined for driving without a license, not wearing seat belts or not having taken their vehicles for regular road safety inspections.
Illegal hookups remain common in Roma camps across Greece, despite regular police raids.
