Inside Brit party holiday hotspot where drug-fuelled teens urinate on each other & terrorise island on high-speed quads

The Irish Sun

19 hours ago

A TEENAGER off his head on booze climbs on to the balcony of a club's VIP ­section, drops his trousers and urinates on the revellers dancing below.
A few doors down, cannabis-laced vodka cocktails are openly on sale while laughing
gas
­balloons are being flogged in the smoky backroom of a bar for 20
euros
a box.
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Tourists without helmets on quad bikes speed past boozy revellers in Laganas
Credit: Ian Whittaker
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When the Sun visited Laganas, thousands of teens were marauding down the main strip by 11pm on Saturday
Credit: Ian Whittaker
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The air was clammy and filled with the constant roar of quad bikes, which can be rented for 50 euros a day
Credit: Ian Whittaker
Meanwhile, a quad bike overloaded with screaming tourists taking selfies roars down the street at high speed — with none of the young passengers wearing helmets.
And
Thankfully his condition has since improved, although his mother says it's 'going to be a long recovery'.
Incredibly, these are all incidents that took place on the Laganas strip on
police
crackdown was enacted.
We can reveal that 50 cops from the capital Athens were parachuted in to claw back control.
Bouncer Collins
Michaels
says corrupt bar owners and out-of-control Brits have been responsible for dozens of casualties at the notorious
Pulling back his shirt to reveal a stab wound on his right arm, Collins, 54, told The Sun: 'The young kids never stop being naughty because this is often their first time on holiday without their parents.
'I often see
teenagers
climb on to the balcony of the VIP section at my club then pee on the people below.
'I was stabbed in my arm by a tourist as I was trying to control a group of kids in 2016. The wound was really deep and I spent two weeks in hospital. The strip was rampant — completely out of control — before the crackdown last year and there was so much fighting.
'Something needed to be done or more lives were going to be lost.'
Brit DJ, 24, in coma after horror quad bike accident on party island Zante where he had landed 'amazing' club residency
'Last year went crazy'
Kai, from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, is the latest visitor to end up in dire straits having moved to
He was a passenger on a quad bike that slammed into a wall on a coastal road on the island at around 5pm local time.
Kai — who was due to fly home two days after the crash — is still in hospital, having been treated for a bleed on the brain, according to his brother Corey Roberts, 18.
The DJ allegedly had to wait an hour for an ambulance before he was taken to the
general hospital
on Zante.
After a CT scan revealed the bleed, he was flown to the Greek mainland where he was put in a medically induced coma at Ioannina University Hospital. The quad bike driver escaped with minor injuries.
Corey said: 'My brother is my idol. He's well known, and everywhere he goes everyone loves him.'
I last visited Laganas in 2018 after a group of 17 British teens were taken to hospital having drunk bootleg booze containing the deadly chemical methanol.
Two years earlier, Hannah Powell, 21, was left fighting for her life and with just ten per cent eye function after drinking a cocktail laced with the same substance, which bar owners had been adding to their home brew to cut costs.
The young kids never stop being naughty because this is often their first time on holiday without their parents.
Hannah, from Ormesby, Middlesbrough, also needed a kidney transplant and said: 'I was blind — I didn't realise at the time. I thought we had the curtains shut.'
But my research has found that the constant chaos and carnage that became the
hallmark
of Laganas got even worse after Hannah was blinded.
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British DJ Kai Roberts is in a coma after he crashed his quad bike on party isle this week
Credit: Facebook
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A Medusa Stoned Eyes cocktail laced with cannabis was on sale for 14 euros at a bar that also specialised in shisha pipes
Credit: Ian Whittaker
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In 2016, Hannah Powell was blinded by booze laced with methanol
Credit: Supplied
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In 2011, Robert Sebbage was stabbed to death in Laganas afer a taxi row
Credit: ENTERPRISE NEWS AND PICTURES
Sigouros Raftopoulos runs three of the six private medical clinics on Laganas Road that provide first aid and ambulance services.
He says there was a worrying number of quad bike, scooter and car accidents before police from the capital were flown in.
He said: 'Last year went crazy. There were so many cases that involved air ambulances and transfers to Athens.
'We have lots of road accidents. Compared to this time last year we are 50 to 60 per cent down. We are seeing around 20 patients a day total, but during high season it could be 40 to 50 patients.
'You can see the strip is less crazy now. The quality of the booze has been upgraded and there are a lot more police, a lot more checks and a lot more controls.'
In 2011, Robert Sebbage, 18, from Tadley, Hants, was stabbed to death outside a fast-food restaurant in Laganas after one of his group pointed a laser pen at a taxi driver's eye. Four other British teenagers from Basingstoke were wounded in the 3am attack.
Another low point came when US university graduate Bakari Henderson, 22, died of severe head injuries after he was battered by bouncers working at Bar Code in July 2017.
The fight was captured on video and reportedly kicked off after he tried to take a selfie with a waitress.
It then spilled outside, where eight security guards repeatedly stamped on his head before leaving him unconscious on the ground.
Six Serbian nationals, a 34-year-old Greek and a 32-year-old British national of Serbian descent were among those arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter.
In 2022, five of them were convicted of intended fatal bodily harm while another was convicted of fatal bodily harm, and all were handed jail sentences from ten to five years. But even that did not stop the violence.
In July 2023, British tourist James Taylor, 18, was caught on camera being repeatedly beaten by four bouncers at CherryBay nightclub in Laganas.
James, from
Middlesbrough
, suffered two black eyes, a swollen jaw, injuries to his head, a bust lip and a cut on his knee. He claimed he was set upon after standing on a chair to take a selfie.
We have lots of road accidents. Compared to this time last year we are 50 to 60 per cent down. We are seeing around 20 patients a day total, but during high season it could be 40 to 50 patients.
Sigouros Raftopoulos
The footage went viral on social media and a Serbian national was arrested — yet workers at the club tried to justify the attack by saying James had beaten a teenage girl, even posting photos to 'prove' it.
Then last year, after 12 people aged 17 to 23 were charged with attempted homicide and weapons violations following a knife fight at a bar, the Greek government finally decided to take action.
Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis announced that 40 police officers and ten drug enforcement agents were being dispatched to
He said: 'We are committed to ensuring the safety of residents and visitors. The reality in Zakynthos will significantly improve.'
Security worker Collins, who also runs the Happy Traveller speedboat rentals company, says the 'craziness' has calmed down considerably since then.
He said: 'Before, some bouncers were not professional. They thought security work was all about flexing muscles and going to the gym and taking steroids.
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Bouncer Collins Michaels and boat trip saleswoman Alice Krorda
Credit: Ian Whittaker
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18-year-old Brits, from left, Bridget Carty, Livy Wiley and Emily Lappin
Credit: Ian Whittaker
'Then, when the teenagers would start doing crazy things, they would beat them up.
'It's more peaceful now because there is more police control.
'Before, it was only local police and they tended to turn a blind eye to the bad behaviour if it was carried out by other locals. But now, with the Athens police overseeing them, they have no choice but to take action.
'A few bars and clubs have been closed down for breaking the law or playing music too loud after midnight.
'A message has been sent out that bouncers can't hit kids any more and the tourists have been told to report anyone who gets rough with them.
'Lethal death juice'
'I would say it's 80 per cent under control now — but it will never be completely peaceful as we have so many of you crazy Brits here in July and August.'
When the Sun visited Laganas, thousands of teens were marauding down the main strip by 11pm on Saturday, many of them celebrating the end of their A-levels.
Girls in tight-fitting dresses stumbled down the street sucking on vapes or clutching vibrators, while lads in outrageous fancy dress outfits were downing luminous shots inside the bars.
The air was clammy and filled with the constant roar of quad bikes, which can be rented for 50 euros a day.
One we spotted tearing down the strip at high speed was being ridden by three helmetless teenagers — a young lad and two girls — who were posing for a selfie being taken by the driver.
Meanwhile, a Medusa Stoned Eyes cocktail laced with cannabis was on sale for 14 euros at a bar that also specialised in shisha pipes.
In the backroom of another bar, a man was flogging laughing gas for 20 euros a box.
When asked if a balloon could be purchased and taken outside, the bearded salesman said: 'No, they are illegal on the island.'
Marijuana products were openly on sale alongside sex toys at the racier stores that lined the strip alongside those flogging typical tourist tat.
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James Taylor from Middlesbrough who was beaten by bouncers in a Zante nightclub
Credit: Michelle Taylor/NCJ Media
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Sigouros Raftopoulos runs three of the six private medical clinics on Laganas Road that provide first aid and ambulance services
Credit: Ian Whittaker
Ralph Goodwin, 18, Will Bloch, 17, Monty Munday, 18 and John Simmons, 18, said they had been offered drugs during their week-long lads' holiday to Zante.
Ralph, from Haslemere in Surrey, had just finished his A-levels and said: 'They don't sell it inside the bars and clubs, but we've had random people approach us in the street and offer to sell us cocaine.
'There's no ketamine here and we're not into drugs anyway.
'We just want to go out and have a good time and we've had a great lads' holiday. The only annoyances have been the bouncers, who are still really aggressive, and the ambulance workers, who will try to fleece you.
'A friend needed an IVF drip after drinking too much the other night and they charged him 450 euros. The booze here is deadly. I call it lethal death juice because a lot of it is home made.
'But in one place we were given three shots of water — literally water — and two cocktails for ten euros.'
Bridget Carty, Livy Wiley and Emily Lappin, all 18 and from Marlborough, Wilts, were also celebrating the end of their A-levels, having paid £500 each for their package holiday.
Livy said: 'We're all terrified of getting our drinks spiked.
'The taxi driver who picked us up at the airport warned us not to drink alcohol in the bars and clubs.
'He said the drink is 'strange' and it is 'easy to drug'.
'We had drinks at our accommodation before we went out yesterday and we covered our glasses with our hands all night, but we still had a good time.'