How a Greek airline became a hub for sanctioned elites and shadow networks

On the afternoon of Monday 30 June 2025, a Boeing 737-446 of the Greek airline Air Mediterranean registered as SX-MAT landed at Damascus International Airport. It was the first passenger flight from Athens to the Syrian capital since the fall of Bashar al-Assad. The flight of this relatively unknown airline and its enthusiastic passengers were greeted by a delegation, which, according to posts on social media, consisted of the Greek ambassador, Emmanuel Kakavelakis, some representatives of the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority, and an unknown man dressed in white, who was said to be the president of a Lebanon-based company called Arkhos.

Later, dressed in a black suit, during a celebratory event in Damascus for the launch of Air Mediterranean’s new routes from Vienna, Cologne and Berlin to Syria via Athens, the same man would state: “While bigger airlines faced obstacles in scheduling flights to Syria, as a private airline from Greece, we were able to overcome them.”

The man who was speaking as if he were Air Mediterranean’s representative is Mohamad Majd Deiry. And he has another capacity other than that of a businessman: he is wanted by the FBI since 2021 for illegal arms trafficking and money laundering. His name is included in the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list. According to the latter, Deiry, along with his Lebanese associate Samer Rayya and their company, Black Shield, have at least since 2015 “brokered weapons deals and offered air transport services in the Middle East and Africa” with the use of shell companies in Cyprus (S. Group Airlines Ltd, Centuronic Ltd) and in Turkey. According to the OFAC sanction list, they “maintained relationships with individuals allegedly linked to the Syrian government and engaged in business activity on behalf of the Iranian regime”.

Data from the Syrian Commercial Registry shows that Deiry has run a business in his own name since 1986, trading in materials permitted by the state. In 2018, Deiry appeared in Greece and declared himself to be a permanent resident with an address similar to that of the “Aliens & Migration Directorate of the Southern Sector”. His main associate, Rayya, was arrested at Athens’ “Eleftherios Venizelos” airport in 2022. According to a recent report by iMEdD, he remained in custody in Athens for 16 days and was released on bail on the condition that he did not leave the country while awaiting trial. However, he did not show up at the trial in February 2023.

Why is a Syrian arms dealer with an outstanding international arrest warrant against him, whose associate is on the run, speaking on behalf of a Greek airline in Syria? What do we know about Air Mediterranean, which was operating flights to Damascus during Assad’s regime in 2023, when no other European airline did the same?

In a co-publication with the Mediterranean Institute for Investigative Journalism (MIIR), SIRAJ (Syria), Daraj (Lebanon), L’Espresso (Italy), Voxeurop today presents a case that reads like a film noir script, were it not real life. The series of events holds both Greek and European authorities to account and unfolds in Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Libya, Italy, Lebanon and Dubai. The case involves the family of a prominent Lebanese businessman who has been known to the Greek political elite since the time of socialist prime minister Andreas Papandreou (in office from 1981 to 1989 and from 1993 to 1996).

It also involves an inter-company “civil war”, allegations of mismanagement and financial irregularities, transactions through Cyprus, an individual wanted for arms trafficking, and a convicted drug kingpin with links to the illegal trafficking of migrants to and from Libya. This cross-border investigation also reveals that two individuals at the heart of this story have a pending Interpol “red notice”, to which the Greek police and judicial authorities have yet to respond.

From take-off to turbulence

Air Mediterranean (Mediterranean Airlines S.A.) was established on 1st September 2015, by three individuals: Hamad Ali Al-Thani, one of the founders of Qatar Airways and Chairman of Blue Air Leasing based in the United Arab Emirates, on one hand, and the Greek-Lebanese brothers Fadi Elias Hallak and Andreas Hallak on the other. They are the sons of the powerful and influential Lebanese businessman George Hallak (or Hallaq or Challak), known for his warm friendship with Andreas Papandreou, his close ties with the Greek political elite, and with once prominent Middle Eastern leaders, such as Palestinian Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) and Syrian Hafez Al Assad (1930-2000).

Earlier reports identified George Hallak as the mastermind behind a scheme that generated funds for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) through the purchase of airlines and duty-free shops in several countries. This move may allegedly have facilitated the smuggling of various illicit goods.

George Hallak himself, who is 85 years old today, does not appear in the company’s documents, whereas his wife Nada appears to be serving as president. Marios Samprakos, a former pilot, was appointed as the current accountable manager in 2021. However, the company is managed and trades through a network of Cyprus-based companies.

Between 2018 and 2021, two individuals associated with the Lebanese bank Levant Investment Bank (Libank), which invested funds in the company, sat on Air Mediterranean’s Board of Directors. However, the bank is now allegedly accusing Air Mediterranean, specifically Andreas and George Hallak, of fraud and embezzling €6.61 million. Consequently, a Red Notice was issued by Interpol on 17 April 2024 at the request of the Lebanese authorities.

The provisional arrest warrant in question makes no mention of the third brother, Fadi Hallak, who, according to media reports and other information examined by Voxeurop and its partners, has been in open conflict with his family since 2022. According to Interpol’s notice, however, the charges could carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison. It remains unknown whether the Greek authorities have responded to the request for the provisional arrest and extradition of the Hallaks to Lebanon. We have reached out to the Hellenic Police but have not yet received a response.

But how did it all begin? From its inception, the Hallaks promised to provide high-end passenger and cargo services between Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. On 2 November 2017, Air Mediterranean operated its first passenger flight, celebrating with a glittering event a few days earlier attended by a host of political and religious guests. Despite the initial publicity, however, the airline’s activity remained limited until 2019, focusing on charter flights to Larnaca, Stockholm, London (Stansted), Baghdad, Casablanca, Khartoum and Jeddah.

In 2020, amid the pandemic, flights were reduced, but other opportunities emerged. One such opportunity was the International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM) Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programme, which was co-financed by the EU and national funds. On 6 August 2020, the airline operated a charter flight to implement the voluntary return of 134 Iraqi migrants under the auspices of the Ministry of Migration.

An IOM spokesperson confirmed that the organisation had coordinated the operation and the competitive bidding process, which Air Mediterranean had won. They added that “this remains the only AVRR flight conducted with that airline”. However, we know that in 2024, the company conducted eight similar voluntary return flights from Italy to Tunisia in collaboration with the Italian ministry of the Interior.

The “boarding” of a wanted drug dealer

In November 2021, George Hallak travelled with Marios Samprakos to Syria, where he met the minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Fassyal Mikdad. This was one of several trips that George Hallak had taken to the region, not as a Lebanese businessman, but as a diplomatic envoy of Guyana’s president. In fact, he acted in his capacity as the state’s “minister of Southern Europe and the Middle East”, a country considered a tax haven in Latin America. As well as his ties with Guyana, George Hallak maintained a relationship with Panama until 2023, where he had set up an anonymous offshore company called Fang, named after the real estate investment company he has owned since 2003 in Greece.

Around that time, Air Mediterranean began considering operating routes to Syria, at a time when other European airlines were not doing so, due to the war and existing sanctions. In September 2022, Syrian Eyad Esleem, a man who reportedly was on good terms with Assad’s wider circle, settles in Athens and starts working for Air Mediterranean as a commercial manager. 

Esleem also acted as the mandated representative of Freebird Travel Agency (Al-Tair Al-Hurr for Tourism), which, as set out in the “General Agency for the Sale of Passenger and Cargo Transport Services” contract signed by the two companies on 28 September 2022, would be the sole agency issuing tickets for Air Mediterranean in Syria for one year.

Things move forward, and on 9 March 2023, the Greek airline operates the first passenger flight from a European carrier to Damascus since 2012.

At this point, serious questions can be raised about the oversight of the Greek and European authorities that allowed this partnership and flight route to be established, as well as the carrier’s own responsibilities. The main reasons are as follows:

1. In addition to being an agency for Air Mediterranean, Freebird is also an agency for Cham Wings Airlines (FLYCHAM). This infamous Syrian airline operated routes between Syria and Libya and was accused of being involved in the illegal trafficking of mercenaries, migrants and drugs. It is also on OFAC’s sanctions list. Previous investigative reporting by Reporters United, SIRAJ, Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel and El País has proved that several of the 750 migrants who were on the Adriana fishing boat, which sank off the coast of Pylos on 14 June 2023 in the deadliest shipwreck in the Mediterranean, were transported from Damascus to Benghazi via Cham Wings. This involved providing fake travel documents to passengers, who allegedly paid $4,500 for the ill-fated voyage.

2. Freebird belongs to the Al-Daj Group (also known as the Al-Dj or Daj Commercial Group), which was founded and is run by the Syrian-Libyan businessman Mahmoud Al-Daj (also known as Al-Dj or Daj). He is one of the most powerful businessmen in Syria’s logistics and tourism sectors and has strong ties to the Assad regime, for which he provided supporting services. Through the Al-Daj Group, illegal transactions such as the transfer of arms, mercenaries, and drugs between eastern Libya under General Haftar and Syria were allegedly facilitated.

3. Mahmoud Al-Daj and his company, Al-Ta’ir, are behind the coordination of operations to transport illegal shipments of the Captagon drug to Libya. This includes a cargo of Captagon and cannabis worth over $100 million that was seized by Greek authorities from the ship Noka off the coast of Crete on 12 May 2018. The ship had set sail for Benghazi from the Syrian port of Latakia. Evidence of Al-Daj’s illegal activities was presented as early as 2021 in investigations by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), The New Arab and Der Spiegel.

Al-Daj was sentenced to death by firing squad in absentia by a Benghazi court in 2019 for his actions. In 2024, Al-Daj’s company, Al Ayadi Al Zahabiah (“Golden Hands”), was also behind the transfer of 2,000 Syrian workers to Libya. There, they were forced to work in conditions resembling labour concentration camps, as Syrian journalists were able to uncover. The contract between Freebird and Air Mediterranean for the Athens–Damascus flights was signed by Al-Daj and Andreas Hallak.

4. As of 2024, Mahmoud Al-Daj, the Al-Daj Group, Freebird and Al-Ta’ir are on the OFAC and European Union sanctions list. As of 1 July 2025, OFAC’s list became the “Promoting Accountability for Assad” (PAARSS) list.

Although the Greek authorities have been aware of Al-Daj’s criminal activities, the company Free Bird Hellas SA was established in Athens on 24 May 2023. According to the Greek business registry, the company’s founders are Eyad Esleem and Mahmoud Daj. The latter is listed as a ‘businessman of Syrian nationality’ and is registered with a Greek VAT number and a residence address in Glyfada, an Athenian suburb. The company, described as a travel agency, will remain in operation until April 2024. How was a wanted drug trafficker able to secure a personal VAT number and a registered office for his business in Greece without the authorities taking action?

Air Mediterranean’s flights to and from Damascus continued weekly from March until October 2023. A Freebird Facebook post also announced the airline’s expansion to European cities, stating that, as “an agent of Greek Mediterranean Airlines, it would operate flights from Europe to Damascus and vice versa via Athens, starting on 14 May 2023.

Tickets were issued in Syria through the Freebird page; however, according to sources in the country, it is alleged that, through this agency, interested parties could also obtain fake travel documents.

Since 2 June, we have repeatedly requested data from the Hellenic Police regarding the arrests of foreign nationals with fake visas at Athens Airport in 2023, as well as information on the routes and airlines involved. However, at the time of publication we have received no answer. 

According to data collected from Flightradar24, the airline operated 18 flights between Damascus and Benghazi between May and July 2023, and 52 flights from Benghazi to Athens between December 2022 and July 2023 (but not vice versa).

However, it is unclear exactly who the airline served, and how it could guarantee that it would not carry “individuals who collaborated with the Syrian regime or were on the US sanctions list”, as operations director Marios Samprakos assured. This is because the airline needed the Assad government’s permission to operate in Syria. It is also unclear what guarantees were in place to ensure the safety of flights in Syrian and Libyan airspace.

Given the above, as well as the company’s relationship with Mohammad Majd Deiry, a new associate in Syria who is on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list, we addressed questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Greek Police. We received no response.

The EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) confirmed that it had conducted audits on the airline in 2024. However, we did not receive a response from the relevant Directorate of the European Commission. In Greece, the Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that Air Mediterranean had provided the necessary documentation to obtain a licence to operate flights. However, they added that they are not responsible for checking passengers or goods entering or transiting the country.

In a detailed response to MIIR, Libank — who remains a GMT Aviation shareholder in Cyprus, one of Air Mediterranean’s shareholders — claims that “due to GMT’s and LIBANK’s entire exclusion from Air Mediterranean, we were not involved or aware of any of its activities, except for those which became available in public news sources. Given that, we are completely unaware of Air Mediterranean’s cooperation with Freebird, Arkhos OFFSHORE Sal and Mr. Deiry, as well as the flights operated between Athens and Damascus in March 2023”. Regarding its dispute with Andrew and George Hallak, Libank confirms that it has pursued the men, as well as Nada Hallak, “for criminal organised fraud in the Beirut courts. Libank was successful in obtaining an indictment from the prosecutor, as well as an international arrest warrant for George and Andreas Hallak”.

Air Mediterranean did not respond to our questions.

Hallak vs. Hallak

Who is ultimately responsible for these business decisions? What are the Greek authorities doing? A document that sheds light on this is a letter allegedly drafted and sent in February 2024 by Fadi Elias Hallak, an indirect shareholder and, until recently, a board member of Air Mediterranean, to the law firm Noble Trust, which represents the airline’s main shareholder, the Cypriot company Pantrelalo Trading Limited. In the letter, which was examined by MIIR, Fadi Hallak refers to the Board of Directors of Air Mediterranean taking unilateral actions against him, which he believes have harmed him financially. He also accuses the management of not allowing him access to company records.

Fadi Hallak accuses his brother Andreas, his father George, and their associates of “cooking and faking the financial and operational books and records of Air Mediterranean throughout flight operations since 2017”, claims that the “cargo dangerous goods manifest is misrepresented, and the real data is hidden from all authorities”, and denounces “serious breaches of financial, fiduciary, safety, security, and operational duties”.

The letter also mentions that Mahmoud Al-Daj regularly visited George and Andreas in the offices of AirMed and visited the home of George and Nada Hallak several times. Fadi Hallak also claims that his father George Hallak “continues to use his connections to bribe and employ continuous intimidation tactics’ and expresses fear for his life and that of his family.”

Neither Andreas nor George Hallak responded to our questions. We contacted Fadi Hallak individually. He confirmed the existence of the letter and informed us that he has taken court and extrajudicial action against the company, of which he remains an indirect shareholder. He further stated: “In my effort since January 2022, through the judicial institutions and the independent authorities in Greece and Cyprus, to bring out the truth about the way Air Mediterranean operates, I have so far encountered only inexplicable dead ends.  I now hope that the illegal acts and those responsible for the actions of this airline will be revealed, and that the leaders of the judiciary will be mobilised to fulfil their not-so-self-evident duty.”

The latest developments

According to lawyers involved in the case, the information and allegations made by Fadi Hallak in his letter have been received by a deputy prosecutor of appeals, who is looking into forwarding them to the Anti-Money Laundering Authority. The Athens Public Prosecutor’s Office also has the letter in its possession following a lawsuit by a Greek state public body and is expected to verify the allegations made by Fadi Hallak. No known developments in the case were available prior to publication.

Air Mediterranean’s flights to Syria were suspended in October 2023, shortly before EU sanctions on Al-Daj and his companies came into effect on 22 January 2024. Flights to Damascus resumed a month ago and are currently operating through another agency, Almera Travel & Tourism.

FBI fugitive weapons smuggler Mohamad Majd Deiry is making public appearances in Damascus amid the new political and social environment now emerging in the country.

The Hallak civil war is still raging. The Red Notice issued for George and Andrew Hallak has not been enforced.

It remains unclear what Greek and European authorities are doing to ensure that the Greek carrier and its partners, as well as other airline companies, stay out of illegal activities and that passenger safety is not compromised.

Little is known about the activities of the convicted Mahmoud Al-Daj after the fall of the Assad regime, except for a single Facebook post on 31 December 2024. In it, Al-Daj boasts about the arrival of the first ship at the port of Latakia, loaded with cars and buses. ‘A new achievement that embodies our vision and ambition… for the year 2025’, he wrote — an indication of his intention to continue doing business in Syria. He later deleted the post.

His whereabouts remain unknown.

* On 6 August, following the initial publication of the investigation, the Hellenic Police sent us data listing arrests made at Athens Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, for illegal entry into the country with the use of forged/altered documents from Arab and African countries of departure during the year 2023,  along with the airlines used to arrive in Greece. The data mentions 8 arrests involving Syria as the country of departure. However, in the table recording these 8 arrests, the airline the arrested passengers flew with from Syria is listed as “Unknown” in 7 of the cases – a designation not found for any other country – while the remaining entry is left blank. We requested clarifications from the Hellenic Police as to why this specific information was omitted, but we have not received a response to date.

** Before the publication of this investigation, several requests for reply and clarifications were sent to Air Mediterranean and George and Andreas Hallak, but all remained unanswered. After the investigation was first published in Greece, MIIR and EfSyn received a judicial warning from Air Mediterranean and George and Andreas Hallak, who deny any connection with Mohamad Majd Deiry, reject the accusations of fraud and embezzlement in the Libank affair, and admit to their collaboration with Mahmoud Al-Daj. We will publish these judicial warnings, as well as our response, in the coming days.

🤝 This investigation was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe