Justice Minister Philippos Petsalnikos yesterday ordered an official inquiry into the circumstances of the sudden death on Monday night of convict Theodoros Grigorakos, who was in Korydallos prison for attempted murder in connection with his family extortion racket. His other male family members have been killed in gangland turf wars.

Other inmates found Grigorakos semi-conscious in his cell, and called the guards. Grigorakos died shortly afterward in an ambulance while being transferred to the Tzanneio hospital in Piraeus.

A coroner representing the Grigorakos family said toxicology tests were being done to help determine the cause of death, but that according to an initial examination Grigorakos appeared to have consumed a large amount of alcohol.

Two years ago, his brother Nikos was gunned down outside an Athens courthouse, and the same year their father Vassilis was shot dead while driving his car along a busy road in Athens’s southern suburbs.