The arrest of the six men and two women allegedly involved in the armed bank robbery in Kato Tithorea, which took place on Monday morning, May 11, was reported by Minister of Citizen Protection Michael Chrysochoidis, speaking to ERT, stressing that the group had been under surveillance for some time by the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime.
The minister noted that the solving of the case was the result of months of surveillance of the group by the Directorate for the Fight against Organised Crime, also known as the “Greek FBI”.
“There is a good team, a good agency, the Greek FBI, the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, which had been monitoring this particular group for a very long time before the robbery,” he said.
According to Chrysochoidis, members of the group had been involved in other robberies, and he said it was a highly organised and active criminal group. “They had committed other robberies, both a very large one and other small ones,” he noted.
At the same time, he stressed that this case is an example of the way police services should operate. “This is a conclusion of how our services should work. When they are well organised, when they have competent staff, when they have equipment and technology and of course when they form teams within the services, which ultimately have an outcome that is good and beneficial to the community,”
Asked if the team might be linked to other cases beyond robberies, the minister refrained from giving further details, noting that further investigation would be undertaken by the judicial and investigative authorities. “They may be linked to something else, but in any case it is not our job to find out now. The courts, the prosecutors and the investigating agency will find it,” he said.
About this group, he added that “they were very capable and very active doing robberies”, however, the minister said, “eventually they fell into the trap of the service and were arrested.”
</html
