More than 60 arrested persons are brought before the prosecutor

In over 60 arrests led to the large operation carried out by ELAS since Sunday evening to dismantle the main core of hooligans allegedly related to the case of the murder of the policeman Giorgos Lyggeridislast December.

A case file for the creation of a criminal organization will be submitted to the Prosecutor today, while charges of moral complicity in the fatal wounding of the 31-year-old police officer are also expected to be brought.

The 158 people included in the voluminous file (more than 3,000 pages) are alleged to they operated for at least five yearsfrom 2019 until today, not only in Attica but also in the province (Volos and Ioannina).

THE leadership core of hooligans amounts to approximately 20 people, of which five, according to police sources, are charged as moral perpetrators of Lyggeridis’ murder. The members of the criminal organization operated with a different composition each time. The police officers of the Combating of Violence in Sports Venues succeeded with the undercover investigation they conducted over four months to tie the charge of the criminal organization through important findings – mainly from the scene of the murder of the MAT police officer.

Key elements were collected from videos, photographs and witness statements, while various munitions that had been located outside the “Melina Merkouri” stadium and had been transferred to the forensic laboratories “spoke” to the forensic laboratories, as well as from the stadium toiletswhere they had set fire to clothes in order to disappear their traces.

At the same time, persons were identified from the lifting of telephone privacy, while the movements they had made were also targeted by the investigations.

A typical case, as stated by an ELAS source with knowledge of the investigations, is the gathering held by some of the members at the “Georgios Karaiskakis” stadium before the volleyball match and the murderous attack. There they loaded munitions into vehicles and transported them to “Melina Merkouri”.

The alleged leaders at one point gave the signal by saying “let’s go out now to finish them off, clean them up». Then they distributed the munitions – such as bottles, flares, etc. -, resulting in the murder of the policeman.

An unemployed “team leader” had 5,000 euros in his pockets

All those arrested come from the door of the organized followers of the particular group and face the criminal organization charge with different sub-charges depending on the degree of their involvement. Among those arrested is the minor brother of the accused for launching the deadly flare, as well as the manager of a well-known trapper.

The evidence that has been found against those arrested is numerous and “burns” those directly involved in the violent episodes of that night, as all these months they have been identified through the findings from the Forensic Laboratories as well as from the analysis of the video material.

Especially for the main core of the “group leaders” investigations have also been made for money.

In fact, in the possession of one of the directly involved, who is unemployed, 5,000 euros were found, among other things, and confiscated, which he could not justify. One of them was arrested in Ioannina, in his attempt to escape the country.

The five leading members of the criminal organization – The moral perpetrators?

The organizer of the attacks – The “short”

A 40-year-old man known as Joseph or “short”, head of organized port. In fact, the attack on the closed gym “Melina Merkouri” in Rentis was apparently a planned retaliation for what had happened in Volos three days before.

According to the report, the “short man” was the one who, at the time of his arrest on Sunday evening in Ioannina, he had 5,000 euros in his pockets and 4 mobile phones.

the “storekeeper”

The second protagonist is the 27-year-old Omgmanager of a well-known trapper, noted link leader in Ilion, accused in at least four indictments. He is the one who relayed the attack orders and brought in reinforcements. In fact, he was also one of the “key-keepers” of the warehouse from which he allegedly transported armaments and naval flares, and he was allegedly the one who delivered the fatal flare to the 18-year-old who confessed to hitting the unfortunate policeman.

The “Romanian”, “Shark” and “Kokos”

There is also a 36-year-old with the nickname “Romanian”who was among those arrested in the fight that happened in April at the “Karaiskakis” stadium in the context of an internal dispute between Olympiakos fans.

At the same time, there are two 31-year-olds known by the nicknames “Shark”, a well-known member of Olympiakos, and “Kokos”.

The latter was arrested in 2013 for four racist attacks as a member of Golden Dawn, including at a barbershop of a man of Pakistani origin in Metamorfosi. A pistol was also found in his possession.