Μake us preferred on Google A senior Hellenic Police (ELAS) officer helped facilitate the illegal activities of a 54-year-old career criminal, even lending him his personal motorcycle. The 54-year-old had been accused of robbery resulting in murder, of an attempted prison escape and of stealing around 1 million euros in a raid on an island.
This striking detail emerges, as tanea.gr reveals, from an analysis of court documents and data from the investigation by the “Greek FBI” into the large-scale tax and social security contribution evasion case involving the “Horiatiko” chain and other businesses, totaling around 100 million euros.
According to documents and reports by ELAS officers, a 54-year-old who operated mainly in a well-known resort and was involved in claiming and exploiting beach areas during the tourist season played a key role in the ring. His involvement has drawn the attention of the security authorities because of his criminal past.
The 54-year-old was convicted of the 1995 robbery and murder at the Athens General State Hospital, in which a hospital cashier was killed. The cashier was carrying 146 million drachmas (about 450,000 euros). Four career criminals took part in the same robbery, along with a well-known anarchist suspected of membership in the group “Anti-State Struggle,” who had murdered a judicial official. The anarchist was later found dead in the cabin of a passenger ship upon its arrival in Piraeus.
In 2010, the 54-year-old also failed to return from an 11-day furlough from a prison in Crete, and during that time he committed a bank robbery on Alonissos. The two robbers restrained employees and customers and made off with a huge sum of nearly 1 million euros. They initially escaped on a speedboat, leading to a chase across the Aegean by Coast Guard vessels. The robbers managed to land temporarily on a deserted beach on Evia and disappear into the forests, abandoning the boat. A few days later, the Counterterrorism Unit and the Attica Security Police located and arrested him in the Exarchia area of Athens.
It was established that his accomplice in this movie-like robbery was a 45-year-old career criminal who had also been charged with the murder of the cashier at the General State Hospital.
The 45-year-old was murdered in April 2018 near his home in Agioi Anargyroi. The killing marked a new “cycle of blood” in the nightlife underworld at the time, with one of the victims being a former police officer. That former officer reportedly had ties to and worked with businessmen who are now among the main defendants in the “Horiatiko” case.
Some ELAS officers took part in this cooperation, some of whom still hold important positions in the police force today. In addition, the 54-year-old helped another inmate attempt a helicopter escape from Trikala prison in 2013.
This aspect of the case is particularly important for the “Greek FBI” investigators, since it has been established that other people arrested in the “Horiatiko” case belonged to the same criminal network and had also worked for years with the murdered former police officer. Investigators are seeking to determine the defendants’ current relationships and connections, as well as any access to state authorities they may have from the past.
In the current police and judicial investigation, the 54-year-old with this criminal record is considered the ring’s main point of contact with suspected ELAS officers, mainly at the resort in question.
The officers under scrutiny by the ELAS Internal Affairs Division accepted payment in exchange for not carrying out adequate checks or for tipping off members of the criminal organization. These alleged arrangements and dealings between officers and members of the ring reached the point where a senior officer lent his motorcycle to the 54-year-old, a leading figure in armed robberies and more, and helped him in many other ways.
