Greek customs officers found 3,081 knives, daggers, swords and brass knuckles in a shipping container from China declared as "sunglasses, beads," the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) said.
Officers at Thessaloniki's first import-export customs office spotted the container during routine sample checks and scanned it with a mobile X-ray unit, which showed suspicious areas. A full physical search found 24 cartons holding the weapons. The shipment came from a Chinese port and was bound for a company in Bulgaria.
The seizure comprised 1,900 daggers, 470 butterfly knives, 595 swords with blades of 42, 45 or 50 centimeters, 110 brass knuckles and six curved karambit knives. The items fall under Greece's weapons law and were confiscated with the consent of the criminal prosecutor.
AADE did not say who ordered the shipment, whether arrests were made or whether the case has been referred to Bulgarian authorities. It also did not say what the goods were worth.
Thessaloniki is a major transit port for cargo headed to Bulgaria and the Balkans. Greek customs routinely screen containers there using X-ray equipment and detection dogs, and have found cocaine, counterfeit goods and cash in earlier cases involving the same route, including a 82-kilogram cocaine seizure in 2021 involving a Bulgarian consignee.
AADE said the find was a significant blow to the illegal arms trade.