Two Turkish nationals sought for last week’s shooting in northern Greece at a car carrying intelligence service agents trailing them have been arrested in neighboring Bulgaria.
No one was injured in the incident, when a lone gunman exited a jeep and start firing at a car carrying the trio of National Intelligence Service (EYP) agents. The incident took place at a gas station in the Thessaloniki district of Thermi.
The two suspects, 23 and 43, were arrested in the early morning hours by Bulgarian authorities in the city of Svilengrad, close to the border with European Turkey. Police in the neighboring country has previously received photographs and information about the suspects.
Greek authorities must now issue European warrants to achieve their extradition.
They face felony charges in Greece of simply complicity in an attempted homicide, as another 49-year-old man, a third Turkish national, has been identified as the shooter. The latter was arrested in a shack in a remote village in the mountainous part of Rhodopi prefecture, which is close to the border with Bulgaria.
Police believe the two suspects in Bulgaria intended to return back to Turkey, while the third man, who faces felony attempted homicide charges, wanted to flee to Bulgaria.
Some 10 gangland-style murders and several arrests involving Turks and Kurds with Turkish citizenship have occurred in Greece over the recent period, with the violence attributed to clashes between rival Turkey-based criminal gangs.
