Actor among the members of the spiral 2024-03-16 17:28:14

In total, 40 thefts of vehicles and two motorcycles were solved while six arrests were made and 18 vehicles and a number of parts were seized.

According to ELAS, the illegal profits of the spiral are estimated to have exceeded 980,000 euros.

As pointed out in an announcement by ELAS, “a feature of their methodology is that they did not commit opportunistic thefts, but removed vehicles of a specific make, model and color, which perfectly matched each time vehicles they had just registered”.

Among the six arrested is a 51-year-old man, who previously worked as an actor doing a stint in a well-known and beloved TV series of the past, the Constantine’s and helen’s.

He has given up acting for several years and has been involved in business for the past few years. He is now facing charges of forming a criminal organization, aggravated theft by conspiracy, theft by racketeering and theft by trade, forgery, money laundering and violating the Weapons and Drugs Act.

Among the victims of the spiral is the veteran international soccer player, Stathis Tavlaridis, whose motorcycle was stolen.

Attiki: Video document of the impact of the spiral

Video document captures the way in which the members of the spiral that was dismantled by EL.AS. were striking in various areas of Attica, targeting cars and motorcycles.

As shown in the video, a member of the organization has found a target car in a block of flats, wearing gloves and covering the features, but also with a flashlight in hand, he goes towards the vehicle and makes the first investigative moves, not caring that all this is recorded by closed circuit monitoring.

The ELAS announcement

A criminal organization was dismantled from the Sub-Directorate for the Prosecution of Crimes Against Life and Property of the Attica Security Directorate, whose members were committing vehicle thefts in various areas of Attica.

In order to deconstruct the criminal organization, an organized police operation of the Property Crimes Department was carried out in the morning hours of Tuesday, March 12, 2024, in collaboration with the Organized Crime Department of Crete together with a special team of the Weapons – Traces and Tools Department of the Criminal Investigations Department and other police groups, in areas of Attica and Crete, during which -6- members of the organization were arrested, while the case file includes -2 more people.

A case file was filed against them for – as the case may be – criminal organization, distinguished thefts by conspiracy, by continuation and by profession, forgery, money laundering and violation of the law on weapons and drugs.

As it emerged from the investigation, the members of the organization had set up and joined a criminal organization with a specific structure, which carried out the theft of vehicles and motorcycles with a particularly high purchasing demand, with a specific mode of action (modus operandi), for the purpose of illegal possession income.

To achieve their goal, they had distinct roles, namely:

– A 35-year-old man, who held the leading role, was the sole regulator of the operation of the organization, while the stolen vehicles were counterfeited in a body shop owned by him. He directed the actions of the members of the organization, taking care of the receipt, storage and further disposal of disassembled parts and spare parts. In addition, they managed the cash flow for the operation of the criminal organization, such as payments for dismantling cars and operating costs of facilities.

– 43-year-old, who had undertaken the installation and operation of a makeshift clearinghouse in an abandoned building. He was the person who received the stolen vehicles, hid them and saw to their dismantling. When he completed the work, he delivered the parts using closed trucks to the lead member,

– 29-year-old and 21-year-old, they were the operational arm of the organization and removed vehicles, which covered the needs of the organization. In order to achieve their goal, they moved at night in various areas of Attica, looking for vehicles. After committing the theft, they moved the vehicles to neighborhood streets or to their “kavaza”, so as not to be found, and

– 51-year-old, who also owned a car workshop, where he operated a makeshift vehicle scrapping, in an outdoor area with a high fence and a large double door. From him the leading member, using a car – van, loaded and received car spare parts, for a fee.

A characteristic of their method is that they did not commit opportunistic thefts, but removed vehicles of a specific make, model and color, which each time perfectly matched vehicles they had just registered.

From the searches carried out as part of the operation, among others, the following were found and seized:

-9- stolen vehicles,
-9- vehicles, whose legal origin is examined,
-1- stolen motorcycle,
-8- vehicle frames (chassis), with the chassis number plates and their labels and stickers removed,
-8- car engines,
fake license plates,
number of license plates of foreign countries,
fake stamps,
radio frequency interference device (jammer),
car brain diagnostics,
plugs connected to vehicle OBD,
a particularly large number of spare parts – vehicle parts,
cell phone crowd,
a number of documents related to vehicles coming from abroad,
number of vehicle keys and passepartout key,
laptop computers,
number of sim cards and USB and micro sd data storage media,
-1.332- grams of cannabis,
clothing worn during the commission of the thefts,
-2- weapons (pistol and revolver), -3- air pistols and -1- revolver replica,
-11- knives of various sizes,
-100- cartridges and
-1730- euros.

For the case, investigations had also been carried out in an earlier time, specifically in containers belonging to the company of the leading member as well as in a car dealership belonging to a member of the organization, during which -among other things- the following had been found and confiscated:

-3- stolen vehicles,
-12- dismantled vehicles, without identification numbers and their unique stickers,
-39- vehicle engines, most of them with scraped identification numbers,
multitude of doors, bumpers, lights, rubbers, axles and other vehicle parts and
multitude of car disassembly tools.

From the investigations so far, -40- cases of car thefts and -2- motorcycle thefts have been solved, while the illegal profit from the activity of the criminal organization is estimated to exceed the amount of -980,000- euros.

The arrested persons, who have been employed in the past for thefts, forgeries and other related crimes, were brought to the competent prosecution authority, while investigations to fully verify the scope of their criminal activity continue.