Greek Police reopen mafia case files after engineer's execution in Athens

By Yiannis Souliotis

In the wake of last week’s brutal execution of 54-year-old engineer Panagiotis Stathis who was gunned down outside his Athens office in Psychiko, the Hellenic Police is reopening files concerning murders, extortion and beatings which have been linked to underworld activity on the island of Mykonos that reportedly remains strong and largely untouched.

The long string of incidents prior to the murder of Stathis, who was active professionally on the island, include the savage assault in March 2023 of archaeologist Manolis Psarros in the northern Athens suburb of Kifissia. The attack was associated with his activity in Mykonos, as he was part of the staff of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades and handled serious cases of urban planning violations on the island.

Another incident with Mykonos as a common reference point occurred in June 2023 in a well-known department store on Panepistimiou Street. The protagonists were, on the one hand, a 42-year-old construction contractor of Albanian origin with a professional background on the island. He was confronted by two armed compatriots who had previously worked on his construction sites. The two gunmen had been accused of robbing the contractor in November 2022 and arrest warrants were pending against them in connection with the case. The meeting of the three, however, ended in an altercation, with the two Albanian criminals aiming their guns at the contractor, but they fled, and were eventually arrested by police after a chase. After their imprisonment, one of them had claimed that the 42-year-old had put a contract on the head of a well-known estate agent on Mykonos who they savagely beat. A similar allegation had been made about the attack on archaeologist Manolis Psarros.

However, making matters more complicated, the man who made the claim was murdered in Korydallos Prison in June.

The latest information from police indicates the murder was not a random, spontaneous event, but a targeted action. To date, no connection between the above events and the murder of Panagiotis Stathis has emerged, apart from the acquaintance he had with some of the protagonists due to his many years of professional activity on Mykonos.

Another incident that has apparently been linked to the Mykonos mafia was a fire in August 2023 in a restaurant in Neo Kosmos in Athens.