Galery

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The perpetrators of the attempted kidnapping of the young Martinos had tried to prevent him from leaving the parking lot of a supermarket at the intersection of Eolou and Iraklidon Streets in Voula. As stated by a police representative, "The 33-year-old man has saved himself thanks to his coolness and the enormous power of his car (760 horsepower), with which he had dragged one of his kidnappers’ cars. We think that he had become a target after publications about his family of a year ago, which state that his family is wealthy but, at the same time, it is maintaining a low standard of living. This is considered an ideal target by kidnappers. There have been some grey areas in the investigation of previous serious cases of kidnapping, which may now be important. It seems that the kidnapping of shipping magnate Pericles Panagopoulos five years ago involved two Albanians, whom it was impossible to catch and who were able to slip out, as we were unable to find evidence for them. We also believe that many people convicted of other cases of kidnapping have been released from prison."

According to the police, the way the kidnapping was carried out is reminiscent of the kidnapping of industrialist Alexandros Haitoglou in Oreokastro, Thessaloniki, in 1995. Vassilis Paleokostas, aged 48, was charged in connection with this attempted kidnapping and the authorities had later found on him a folder containing about 50 cuttings about the financial status and the activities of around 35 Greek businessmen and their relatives, who were potential victims of kidnapping. His next victim, namely George Milonas, whom he had kidnapped in the summer of 2008, was among them as well. Similar was the modus operandi of the kidnappers of shipping magnate Pericles Panagopoulos in Kavouri in January 2009 who was released against a ransom of 30 million euro, which was never found. The persons accused in this case are in prison, "but probably this means nothing for one or two of them."

The robbery in Edipsos

The assumed "cooperation" between Nikos Maziotis and Vassilis Paleokostas and Spyros Christodoulou is the result of the analysis of the data on the robberies committed in recent months in Velestino, Methana, Spetses and other banks. Nikos Maziotis’ involvement in them was originally confirmed but the probability of 42-year-old Spyros Christodoulou being involved in them as well has been examined too, as he had previously been accused of involvement in robberies and cases of extortion and in 2002 he was charged with the murder of a prisoner in Korydallos, in complicity with dangerous U.S. offender Peter Sedom (who was later found dead in the U.S.).

Subsequently, 42-year-old Christodoulou had repeatedly violated his five-day furlough and it seems that he had committed a series of robberies in Attica, Peloponnese, Evia. He has already been charged with the bank robbery in Edipsos in April 2011, the loot of which amounted to about 500,000 euro. According to the police, this robbery involved the same person as in the robberies that involved Maziotis. There are similarities with the modus operandi of Christodoulou in the attacks in Spetses, Methana and elsewhere, and it seems that he has a stash in Argolida as well as near Athens.

The police also recall that Vassilis Paleokostas met in prison with Spyros Christodoulou (they were in the same cell) and with Nikos Maziotis. The relationship between Paleokostas and Maziotis is confirmed by the comparison of evidence in the investigation of the kidnapping of Milonas as well as in the neutralizing of the terrorist group "Revolutionary Struggle".