‘don’t worry, they’re just private intelligence’: a tea party in Hove

The previous night, the rendezvous had been moved from 11am at Brighton Pier to 12pm at an oyster bar. Fifteen minutes from Brighton, I got a message: they were going to be late; and they had decided to take the car instead of the train; and could we meet at the Pier instead of the restaurant? When I had arranged the meeting, I had reassured people, ‘don’t worry, they’re just private intelligence’; but I was beginning to get nervous…

illicit trades, brass-plate websites and Brighton Pier

They contacted me to discuss illicit trading through the Eastern Mediterranean; they wanted to assess my knowledge of the smuggling bosses. I was intrigued, and investigated.

Greek police have new evidence on the Olympia museum robbery; I have new questions.

Allegedly, Greek intelligence have used phone-tapping, and Greek police now have information on the robbery of the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games in Olympia, Greece. However, no-one has been arrested, and the new claims seem to make the previous ones even less reliable than before.

Below, I query the identity (or identification) of the suspects; the method of the police investigation; the quantity and quality of the evidence; and the police’s theory on the crime and the criminals who committed it. (At the end, I summarise the five key new questions.)