Hidden explosives discovered
Police have found what appears to be one of Revolutionary Struggle’s main storage facilities after seizing 195 kilograms of a powerful explosive in a garage in eastern Athens. Spokesman Athanassios Kokkalakis revealed yesterday that police raided a garage underneath a five-story apartment block in the Kareas suburb after discovering it had been rented by a man claiming to be Dimosthenis Mandalozis – one of the aliases used by Constantinos Gournas, one of the six suspected members of the terrorist group arrested last Sunday. Police identified the explosive as being a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO), which is a common explosive used in mining and quarrying. «It is quite a big quantity,» Kokkalakis told Reuters. «It could have brought down a six-story apartment block.» ANFO first came to the police’s attention in February 2009 when a car containing 60 kilos of the explosive was left outside Citibank’s offices in Nea Kifissia. The device failed to explode, probably due to faulty wiring. Tests at the time revealed that the substance had been made by the terrorists and did not come from an industrial source. Police confirmed yesterday that the ANFO they found in the garage in Kareas had also been prepared by the terrorists and had not been stolen. There were also three high-powered motorcycles in the garage and officers found several license plates, which the terrorists presumably used to avoid detection. Officers did not say whether any of the motorbikes were connected to specific strikes by Revolutionary Struggle. Police also asked anyone who had information about other properties rented under the alias of Dimosthenis Mandalozis or Anastasios Grivokostopoulos to come forward. Kokkalakis said that the home in which Revolutionary Struggle’s alleged mastermind Nikos Maziotis and fellow suspect Panayiota Roupa had been living was also rented using a forged identification card.