Two gangland-style slayings within 24 hours in the greater Athens area have raised concerns over a surge in organized crime in post-pandemic Greece, as well as a more general unease over the activity of violent criminal rings in the east Mediterranean country.
One man, a 34-year-old Albanian national, was shot down on Sunday afternoon while sitting in a coffee shop in the working-class central Athens district of Sepolia. Apparent "hit-men" had tried on three previous occasions to kill the man, dating back decades, according to police reports. One perpetrator was seen fleeing the scene on Sunday.
Less than a day later, a 38-year-old former amateur boxing champion and prize fighter Tassos Berdessis was gunned down with an assault rifle as he was outside sports complex in the extreme southeast Athens district of Vari. The perpetrators fled in a dark-colored luxury SUV, police said.
According to reports, the victim had been charged but acquitted in a handful of felony cases over the past years, with police sources merely referring to a "clearing of accounts" between rival criminal gangs. Berdessis had also won a television reality show called "Survival".
Both execution-style homicides come roughly a month and a half after a noted police reporter, Giorgos Karaivaz, was gunned down outside his apartment building in broad daylight in another coastal Athens district by an assailant and accomplice riding a scooter.
The twin homicides and the manner in which they occurred generated a tit-for-tat round of accusations and counter-accusations between the relevant public order minister, Michalis Chrysohoidis, and main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, with the former referring to a "mafia-style" transformation of organized crime in the country, whereby professional criminals are now laundering money through legitimate businesses.
On his part, Tsipras, whose leftist government (2015-2019) was vilified by political opponents for enacting more lenient prison parole and furlough terms and for revising the criminal code days before the July 2019 snap election, took to FB to underline what he called "a list of dreadful murders that are tending to become a daily occurrence. Organized crime is leaving its blood-stained traces on roads, squares and cafeterias."
