ATHENS – Greek police are keeping up a crackdown in the anarchist dominated neighborhood of Exarchia, arresting eight people and detaining 20 in new raids aimed ate ridding the area of lawlessness and stopping violence.

Six of the arrests were linked to drug-related crimes, while the other two concerned foreign nationals who lacked legal residence permits, the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANA-MPA) reported.

Speaking to the news agency, police sources said the operation is part of the ongoing efforts to tackle crime and “instilling a sense of security” in citizens but there were no reports they also went after a notorious gang that’s been conducting brazen burglaries and smashing car windows in broad daylight, drawing protests from residents little is being done.

Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has ordered the police activities as part of a promise to bring law-and-order to an area where he said the former ruling Radical Left SYRIZA had condoned wrongdoing.

Squadrons of riot police have repeatedly gone in to empty squats of unlawful inhabitants, including refugees and migrants using them to hide out, as well as anarchists who have taken over some abandoned buildings.