Terror group link prompts police raids and arrests
Police found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a handgun, a hand grenade and numerous bullets Wednesday while searching homes in Athens and Thessaloniki used by six people who were detained and are linked to bank robberies and possibly terrorist activity.
Officers searched properties in the Athens areas of Lycabettus and Exarchia as well as Thessaloniki. One of the six suspects had a forged identity card, while others had cash that the police believe was taken in bank robberies in the northern port city.
Some of the suspects are believed to have been involved in two armed robberies in Thessaloniki. Four people took part in the first, at a Public Power Corporation office in August 2013, while three were involved in a July 2014 raid on a branch of Piraeus Bank that netted the robbers 120,000 euros.
Police sources told Kathimerini they believe some of the suspects were in Athens to look for weapons to use in a terrorist hit. The same sources suggested that one of the suspects has links to the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire urban guerrilla group.
The most recent arrest of suspects linked to that particular organization came in July 2013, when two men were taken into custody in Thessaloniki. The arrests came just a month after a car bomb destroyed the Korydallos Prison warden’s car in a blast the police have attributed to the group.
