35-Year-Old Bulgarian Arrested in Thessaloniki for Spying With Thermal Drone
A 35-year-old Bulgarian national was arrested in Thessaloniki on espionage charges after police found thermal imagery of a former Greek military base stored on his drone.
The case broke when a citizen in eastern Thessaloniki called authorities to report a man flying an unlicensed drone in the area. DIAS police units responded, located the suspect, and immediately determined he had no valid drone operator permit.
The memory card contained thermal photographs of the Farmaki camp facilities in Kalamaria, a former military installation in the eastern Thessaloniki suburbs.
When officers searched his vehicle, they recovered the drone and examined its stored footage. The memory card contained thermal photographs of the Farmaki camp facilities in Kalamaria, a former military installation in the eastern Thessaloniki suburbs.
A criminal file has been opened against the man and he is expected to be brought before the relevant prosecutor in the coming days.
The arrest raises immediate concerns about the vulnerability of former military sites to aerial surveillance, particularly along Greece's northern border corridor where espionage activity from neighboring Balkan countries has been a recurring concern for Greek security services.
