Kathimerini Greece Newsroom
A brutal daylight ambush on Monday in the suburb of Glyfada in southern Athens marked the latest chapter in the violent turf war among Turkish organized crime factions operating in Greece.
Armed assailants, reportedly six in number, attacked three men outside an OPAP Play betting shop on Monday morning.
The attack escalated into a street chase, leaving two dead and one wounded.
Authorities recovered 25 shell casings from the scene.
Shortly after, Greek police arrested two suspects near Mount Ymittos in eastern Attica, finding a firearm and discarded clothing linked to the crime. Both suspects, recent arrivals from Turkey, had no prior records in Greece.
The incident was the latest in a series of violent events involving Turkish nationals.
Just weeks earlier, police disrupted a planned hit by a gang in a white Opel, seizing weapons and arresting a suspect.
A November 5 assassination in Athens and a high-profile September 2023 massacre in Loutraki, a seaside resort on the Gulf of Corinth, to name just a few incidents, underscore the escalating violence.
Greek authorities attribute these events to turf wars among five major Turkish crime syndicates, including the Daltons and Bayacalar, which use Greece as a hub to evade Turkish law enforcement and settle rivalries.
An internal security report has highlighted the dangers of Greece becoming a veritable, albeit unintended, battleground for foreign crime networks.
With connections to drug trafficking and organized hits, these groups are increasingly jeopardizing public safety.
Police are under pressure to crack down on these transnational networks, but critics argue for more coordinated efforts across borders to address the root causes of this deadly conflict.
