Greek authorities on Thursday announced a trio of arrests related to the gangland-style assassinations of three local men linked with organized crime in the country.
The arrests took place on Thursday, with police raids also retrieving firearms – including assault-type rifles – and ammunition, according to reports. Another eight suspects are cited in a voluminous indictment, with one man believed to be still in the country; another two individuals believed to have fled abroad and sought with international warrants, and the rest currently serving prison terms in Greece or Montenegro.
Two of the suspects, 29 and 39, are due to face a local prosecutor on Thursday or Friday on charges of intention homicide, participating in a criminal organization and felony possession and use of a weapon.
The assassinations of Yiannis Skaftouros, Vassilis Roubetis and Dionyssis Mouzakitis are considered part of a deadly underworld struggle for control of protection, drug and prostitution rackets in the country, mostly in the greater Athens-Piraeus area and elsewhere as well.
According to at least one major media outlet on Thursday morning, most of the suspects hail from the former Soviet Union and entered the country under the status of repatriated ethnic Greeks, with authorities suspecting the involvement of members of the so-called “Georgian Mafia”, or “vory v zakone” (thieves in law).
