Arrests point to gangland feud
Police were yesterday questioning three men, including a 29-year-old now in an Attica hospital under armed guard, who are believed to be behind a series of bomb blasts ordered by a 42-year-old suspected gang boss currently imprisoned in Elefsina, west of Athens. According to police, the three suspects carried out several bomb attacks outside nightclubs and car showrooms belonging to a rival gangland boss, aged 48, currently in jail in central Greece. The 48-year-old had led an extortion ring in Haidari, in western Attica, until his arrest last January. The three suspects have reportedly denied any link to the blasts but police say a «succession of events prove their guilt.» Officers believe the 42-year-old convict in Elefsina has long issued orders to his minions from his jail cell. Police also believe that the three suspects had been approaching nightclub owners in Elefsina for extortion money and dealing in large quantities of cocaine. The 29-year-old suspect, who is in hospital after two apparent attempts on his life this month, is thought to have been targeted by assailants working for the 48-year-old gang boss in jail in central Greece. The death of a notorious 47-year-old protection racketeer in a mafia-style hit on Saturday morning is also being attributed to the ongoing clash between the two rival gangs active in western Attica. Police in Attica had another breakthrough yesterday, arresting 15 suspected members of a sex trafficking ring believed to have been exploiting Russian women as prostitutes and laundering the profits through a chain of bakeries. Police said they traced money transfers between an offshore company in Cyprus and the owner of the bakery chain. The alleged sex workers had been listed as employees at the bakery shops, officers said.
