Galery

1

An old acquaintance of the police took an active part in the robbery carried out like a movie bank heist on Friday in Distomo.  He is No. 1 on the “wanted list” Giorgos Petrakakos, who is considered one of the closest associates of mobster Nikos Maziotis.

According to sources, the search of the open motor boat in which the thieves are believed to have escaped, confirmed suspicions of the police that it was carried out by a group of Maziotis, since they discovered DNA of Petrakakos.

Also witnesses say that they recognized Giorgos Petrakakos and another man, who in the past carried out robberies with the wanted man.

Kidnapping, robbery... and a little bit of terrorism

According to data collected by the police, 35-year-old Giorgos Petrakakos has no direct connection to the armed struggle or terrorist activity, but is considered a link between the "brain" of the "Revolutionary Struggle" and the criminals.

Petrakakos, who has been wanted for four years, was also an associate of Vassilis Paleokostas and, according to data published by the Vima newspaper, had been living on Athanasiou Dyaku street in the Agia Paraskevi district. His home was searched by the police several times and in 2002 he was arrested by the police in Athens along with three people, around the age of 30 to 40 years, for five bank robberies, amongst others those of Nova Bank, in Agia Paraskevi, in Pallini. In Triklala city prison a Georgian introduced him to Vassilis Paleokostas and, after his first escape from prison by helicopter in the summer of 2006, they seem to have committed robberies together.

It was also found that on the evening of 31^st August 2007, the 35-year-old Petrakakos and an unknown accomplice broke into the home of a businessman in Thessaloniki in Analipsi neighbourhood and stole his car - a blue Renault Scenic that was discovered in 2010 among members of the "Revolutionary Struggle". From the same owner, they stole a Ηyundai Santa Fe jeep that was used six months later, on 22^nd February 2008, by the gang of Vassilis Paleokostas in an attack on a cash collection security vehicle of the Epanomi supermarket chain, Thessaloniki municipality. After a ballistic expert’s report, the police confirmed that this attempted burglary was the work of Paleokostas's group and in the summer of 2008 police rushed in his hideout in Souroti, Halkidiki, and arrested him along with other anarchists for kidnapping the businessman George Milonas.

Then information came out that Paleokostas and the 35-year-old accomplice of Maziotis no longer worked together. As stated in the court file on the case, Paleokostas thought that Petrakakos too easily takes up arms, that he was "unreliable" in armed activity and "in robberies carried out by him he tried to imitate Paleokostas incriminating him for no reason."

However, when evidence emerged implicating Giorgos Petrakakos – another stolen Porsche that was found at Vassilis Paleokostas’s place, the 35-year-old disappeared and did not attend court.