Two Kurdish Turks were killed and one was seriously injured in a mafia-style shooting in the Athens suburb of Glyfada.
The incident occurred after 10 a.m. outside an OPAP gaming store at the intersection of Mikras Asias and Lefkosias streets. A witness told the ERT public broadcaster that they heard approximately 30 gunshots during the incident.
The injured victim is currently being treated at Asklipieio Hospital in Voula.
Greek police believe that the motive for the shooting was turf wars between rival gangs in Athens.
Reports suggest that the victims are Kurdish Turks. Police officers from the DIAS motorcycle unit later detained two Kurdish-Turkish suspects, although their involvement in the shooting has yet to be confirmed.
Recent mafia-style shootings in Athens
Such incidents, while not very common in the Greek capital compared with other European cities, often involve disputes between criminal organizations or individuals involved in illicit activities such as drug trafficking, extortion, or smuggling.
Last July Greek police arrested a suspect in the mafia-style execution in Athens of Panagiotis Stathis, a surveyor who had undertaken topographical studies on the islands of the Cyclades, including Mykonos.
The suspect is said to have been involved in the abduction of shipowner Periklis Panagopoulos, in January 2009. He has also been involved, according to police, in beatings, robberies and extortion of businessmen. Police sources have also described him as an enforcer on behalf of known criminals.
In another incident that shocked Greek public opinion, six individuals were shot dead in a coastal town near Athens in 2023.
All the victims were men. They were discovered in and around a vehicle and all had sustained gunshot wounds, with at least one handgun suspected to have been used. The targeted vehicle reportedly bore German license plates. Local media reported the discovery of twenty-five shell casings at the scene.
Another criminal incident that caused widespread public reaction occurred in Athens in 2021. Two Albanians, aged 41 and 44, were fatally wounded in an execution-style attack at a cafe in Nea Smirni. A man dressed in black and wearing a surgical mask approached the victims’ table and fired several shots at close range.
The 41-year-old victim died at the scene from his injuries, and the 44-year-old man died shortly thereafter.
That particular incident was reminiscent of a similar Mafia-style execution in May 2021, in which a former boxer was killed in a drive-by shooting in southern Athens.
Tasos Berdesis, a former Greek champion, was shot multiple times and killed while in a vehicle on Andrea Papandreou Street in Vari. Berdesis had previously won the popular TV reality show Survival Secret and was known for his connections to organized crime figures.
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