Explosion in Ampelokipi and yafka in Pagrati: Anti-terrorist police investigation

The Anti-Terrorist Service is looking for answers to both the case of the explosion in Ampelokipi and the warehouse-yafka in Pagrati. The arrest of the 49-year-old philologist who paid the rent for the warehouse has so far given no new directions to the investigation, as he is a person who has not been previously charged with a traffic violation. The Anti-Terrorism officers also reached an old acquaintance, Nikos Romanos, who was taken into custody yesterday, but the only evidence against him is a fingerprint on the bag in which they found a weapon in Ampelokipi – a mobile object. Nikos Romanos, who was previously acquitted of terrorism charges, denies any connection with the case.

Thus, the investigation conducted by the members of the Anti-Terrorism Department

The investigation is turning into a puzzle consisting of seemingly unconnected incidents which, if properly combined, are likely to lead to central cells attempting to revive the so-called “guerrilla city”, which has been conducted recently by the Anti-Terrorism Department.

Centered on the explosion in Ampelokipi and the location of the warehouse-armory in Pangrati, the investigators of the service are looking into older cases to see if there is some invisible line of connection between the latest developments and earlier hits.

Investigators’ eyes have turned to older organizations, specifically the Revolutionary Struggle and the People’s Struggle Group, with the former group having been dismantled and the latter inactivated. The investigation being conducted by the police is along two lines. The first concerns whether and to what extent some of those arrested for the apartment explosion and the warehouse explosion in Pagrati could be members of these organizations, managing to stay under the radar of the Hellenic Police to date. The second axis concerns the investigation to determine whether the weapons and explosives found in Pagrati could be part of the arsenal of the aforementioned organizations.

One clue that could “point” to a certain connection could be the large quantity of ANFO explosives found in the warehouse. This was explosive material that had been used in an attack by the Revolutionary Struggle in February 2009 at the Citibank headquarters in Kifissia and on 2 September 2009, when they used the same method to cause a powerful explosion outside the Athens Stock Exchange.

The organization began its activities in 2003, while the last attack took place on April 10, 2014, when a booby-trapped car with the explosive ANFO name was used for the powerful explosion outside the building of the Bank of Greece on Americana Street.

As for the People’s Agonists Group, it became active in 2013 when it carried out an attack on the offices of the New Democracy party on Syngrou Avenue. This was followed by the shooting at the home of the then-German ambassador in Chalandri, while the group’s last attack was on the premises of SKAI and Kathimerini in December 2018.

The questions that arise are twofold. The first is whether and to what extent the latest developments, namely the explosion in the apartment and the warehouse armoury are connected. The second is whether those arrested in these cases could be members of older organizations who were never arrested. There are no clear answers to either question. Let’s look at the cases in detail.

First, the explosion in the apartment on Arkadias Street in Ampelokipi that led to the death of a man and the serious injury of a young girl, then the discovery of a fingerprint of Nikos Romanos in a bag that was inside the flat that was flattened and, finally, the discovery of the warehouse-armory in Pagrati with a 49-year-old philologist as a tenant, completely “unknown” to the authorities.

Initially, the man and the two women arrested for the explosion in Ampelokipi do not appear to be involved in serious criminal activities. Instead, they are students doing a master’s degree in Germany and were involved in activist activities. No evidence links them to a specific organization or a past attack.

As for Nikos Romanos, who continues to categorically deny the charges against him, the evidence linking him to the Arcadia Street apartment is a fingerprint found on a bag containing a gun and a magazine. Evidence “pointing” to a direct connection between him and the occupants of the house does not exist and given the fact that his fingerprint was found on a mobile device (bag), police are investigating to determine to what extent he is connected to the case.

And finally, the discovery of a huge arsenal inside a warehouse in Pagrati with a mysterious 49-year-old man as a tenant. Mysterious in the sense that the investigation that has been done so far has not revealed a single piece of evidence linking him either to a criminal case or to actions in the so-called anti-authoritarian area. The first time his name was mentioned in a police document was a few days ago when the police found out that he was the man who had rented the warehouse.

Residents of the area where he was staying speak of a witty, educated man who gave the impression of having extreme views on some issues, but no one could imagine that he could be involved in terrorism. He rented the warehouse with false identity documents in 2008 under the pretext that he needed space to store his books, and since then he has been paying 100 euros every two months by bank deposit.

The last payment was made on November 5 and it was the one that “gave him away” as police officers “saw” him from security cameras visiting an ATM in the Byron area and putting the money into the machine. Information from police sources said that as soon as the authorities became aware of the discovery of the deposit box, the man was reportedly recorded leaving his house and throwing away the clothes he was wearing on the day he deposited the rent money.

And in this case, the question that arises is obvious. Is the storage unit in question connected to the deadly explosion that took place in the Arcadia Street apartment? So far there is no evidence that “points” in this direction. What there is is again some reports from residents of the area where he lived, according to which, the 49-year-old’s behavior began to change after the explosion in Ampelokipi. As some of the arrested man’s neighbors specifically reported, while the man was generally cheerful and polite with everyone, after the explosion in the apartment on Arkadia Street he became more abrupt and reduced his public appearances. Nothing other than this change in his character that links him to the apartment exists.

“There is no evidence from the investigation that suggests a connection between the 49-year-old and the Arcadia explosion. There is no evidence linking him to any group or an earlier strike” noted in this regard, speaking to “protothema.gr” well-informed sources. At the heart of the investigation of the officers of the Anti-Terrorism are the contacts of the 49chronou to determine whether he maintained links either with criminal or with people from the so-called anti-authoritarian space. At the same time, his exact role is being investigated. Whether he was either a “seller” of military equipment to interested parties, or possibly a “storekeeper” of an organization that was in charge of storing the weapons and explosives.

However, the number of weapons found “testifies” that what was “being prepared”, if it was “being prepared”, was something big as 3 grenades, a submachine gun, six firearms, various gun parts, magazines, and numerous cartridges, 25 detonators, 7.5 kg of ammonia dynamite, 3 kg of gelatine dynamite, 2 kg of TNT were found, 220 grams of gunpowder, a slow-burning fuse, 37 kilograms of ammonia nitrate, a forged license plate and a laptop.

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