ATHENS – Apart from foreign gangs roaming the anarchist neighborhood of Exarchia, smashing car windows and burglarizing the inside, Greek police have been sweeping the capital in a campaign against lawlessness.

That has led to the arrest of 167 people over the past two weeks for drug dealing, theft and the sale of contraband cigarettes and other goods and stopping and questioning 6,759 people, said Kathimerini.

There were also raids on three large warehouses used to store contraband goods, the police headquarters said, without providing details of their location. The arrests came after the police, stepping up activity on the direction of the New Democracy government, received another 250 officers to take part in expanded operations.

When he took office in July, 2019 after ousting the former ruling Radical Left SYRIZA – which had been accused of being soft on crime – Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said one of his top priorities would be going after criminals.

Since then police have frequently raided Exarchia to go after drug dealers and empty squats, trying to curb violence that has seen the notorious anti-establishment group Rouvikonas strike back with attacks on riot police and vandalizing a number of targets in protest.