Authorities have arrested one of Athens’s most wanted underworld figures, who has been connected to nightclub protection rackets and murder, police said yesterday.

The 41-year-old suspect was arrested on Thursday in a Glyfada nightspot while he was picking up a payment of 1,200 euros for allegedly protecting the business, said a police source.

An investigation unveiled that the suspect and a second man, aged 42, had been blackmailing the owners of the nightspot for the last 14 years, earning around 300,000 euros.

Police said the 42-year-old, who was not charged due to a legal technicality, is also being investigated in connection to other criminal activities. Nightclubs along the beachside stretch of Glyfada are among the most targeted areas by gangs running protection rackets.