An Update on The (Real) Mykonos Mob

Jeff––Saturday

Eleven months ago, a brazen early morning mafia-style assassination took place a stone’s throw away from one of Athens’ chicest suburbs. The murder captivated Greece.  How could it not, for it possessed all the elements of a first-rate mystery thriller. 

Set against a background of brutal international gangs battling for power and wealth on the Greek island paradise of Mykonos, beatings of those who stood in their way (including  public servants), and an in-prison assassination silencing potential adverse testimony, it appeared that the  bold public assassination of Panagiotis Stathis––a civil engineer widely known for his involvement in Mykonos real estate projects––would trigger a long sought-after crack down on organized crime.

At the time, I wrote a blog titled, “Has the Mykonos I Warned About Come to Pass?” In it I addressed what was then publicly known.

With nearly a year having passed, I thought I’d check in on the status of the investigation and found two media articles that appear to sum up where things stand.  I have no independent knowledge of any of the reported facts, but they sure do add to the telling of the tale.

The first article appeared October 14, 2024 on the Albanian media company ZËRI’s website.  In it, ZËRI refers to “The Daily Mail” as its source for an extensive, detailed post titled, The Dark Side of Mykonos! The Murder of The Greek Topographer. I cannot vouch for its accuracy and leave it for you to decide what’s afoot.

As for where matters stand today, Ekathimerini, Greece’s newspaper of record, published an article earlier this week written by Yiannis Souliotis titled, “Murder Suspect Laundered Millions.” According to the article, the main suspect in the assassination of the surveyor had laundered more than 5 million euros over a three-year period.

Here is Ekathimerini’s update on the status of the investigation:

Investigators say more than €5 million was laundered over three years by the main suspect in the killing of Panagiotis Stathis, a well-known surveyor on the island of Mykonos. According to a detailed financial crimes report, the suspect allegedly used a network of eight shell companies to process and withdraw illicit funds.

The findings, compiled by the Financial and Economic Crime Unit (SDOE) following a judge’s order, suggest that the companies were fake, connected directly or indirectly to the suspect, and managed by figurehead owners. “These companies aim to unlawfully inject untaxed or unexplained funds into the banking system,” the SDOE report states.

Authorities say the suspect withdrew funds in phases: €290,000 in 2022, €3.8 million in 2023, and €1.3 million in 2024.

The case is linked to Stathis’ murder on July 2, 2024. Stathis, 55, was gunned down outside his company offices in Neo Psychiko, Athens, as he parked his electric BMW. The shooter, riding a scooter, fired 20 times using two Glock pistols. Stathis was a prominent figure in Mykonos, known for surveying and more recently for his real estate investments.

The homicide investigation concluded with prosecutors recommending trial for the 45-year-old suspected shooter and his 48-year-old accomplice, who allegedly helped dispose of the scooter shortly after the crime.

Police surveillance footage captured the shooter’s movements before and after the attack.

Both suspects were previously involved in the 2009 kidnapping of Greek shipping magnate Pericles Panagopoulos.

Despite extensive investigation, police have not officially identified who may have ordered the murder or their motive.

Why do I sense from the Ekathimeri article’s concluding two sentences that there are significant, nuanced thriller plot twists yet to come?

Stay tuned folks.

––Jeff

 

Has the Mykonos I Warned About Come to Pass?

 

A man was murdered in Athens, Tuesday July 2, 2024. 

(SOTIRIS DIMITROPOULOS/EUROKINISSI)

 

Jeff––Saturday

 

Sixteen years ago, I published my first Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novel (Murder in Mykonos) in which I focused upon a way of life and people I knew and loved on the Greek Aegean Cycladic island of Mykonos. Five years later, in Mykonos After Midnight (Kaldis #5) I warned of what I saw as an existential threat posed by the “people of the night” having set their sights on Mykonos.  A half-dozen years later I wrote The Mykonos Mob (Kaldis #10, Island of Secrets in paperback). By then my warnings had reached five-alarm-fire levels.

 

As I contemplate the plot for Kaldis #15, I’ve tinkered with whether it’s time to revisit Mykonos again as a sort of every five-year pilgrimage thing.  There’s certainly a lot being written about Mykonos these days. Most interesting to me is a recent headline story burning across the Greek press investigating an event chillingly akin to the gangland style assassination scene at the beginning of The Mykonos Mob.

 

There is certainly a story there, but it’s one I’ve already told, and see no purpose in fictionalizing the situation or potential solutions further. Reality at times is chilling enough on its own. And so, I’ll reproduce that reality plot line here, lifting the story word-for-word from yesterday’s (July 5^th) The National Herald, the NYC-based leading newspaper for Greek America.

 

The headline reads, “With Engineer’s Murder, Organized Crime Said Taking Over Mykonos.”

 

ATHENS – As police haven’t found the gunman who shot dead a civil engineer who did survey work on Mykonos, the investigation centered on his finances, potential rivals and worries the island is being controlled by mobsters and developers.

Panagiotis Stathis, 54, was shot in Athens in his car by a gunman on a scooter with fake license plates, captured on CCTV, showing the victim shot multiple times and then a final kill shot before getting away.

State TV ERT said that people who had business relationships with him were also being looked at and the investigation is also being conducted on the island where officers from the Greek Police’s homicide units are questioning people.

The country’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority is also reportedly checking his financial activities, the report said, but there’s no suspect in the murder of the surveyor or whether it was related to his work.

The police also searched the house where the 54-year-old surveyor stayed when he visited Mykonos. Investigators have reportedly found a laptop belonging to the victim, which has been transferred to forensic laboratories for analysis

Stathis’ killing bears the hallmarks of a Greek mob hit as well and Kathimerini said the investigation is zeroing in on his work on the island where officials and the government haven’t been able to check unlawful development.

Stathis had been conducting land survey studies on Mykonos, Paros and Ios since the late 1990s through a technical company he co-owned, and drawing up plans for more major investments and beach bars known for violating laws.

He allegedly bought a plot of land in the Agios Stefanos area of the island but the report said it couldn’t be confirmed whether that had brought a confrontation with someone on the island where people are jockeying to take over more spaces.

AT RISK

Stathis was said to be highly regarded for his work on the island where looking into construction that allegedly has links to the underworld has become dangerous and that he was on Mykonos at least once a week to work and meet officials.

He previously complained to police he had been assaulted there but didn’t say who did it or why and in 2021 filed a complaint with the police in the Halandri neighborhood of Athens he was attacked there by unknown assailants.

In March of 2023, Manolis Psarros, a state archaeologist who worked on Mykonos was beaten savagely by an unidentified man with a possible accomplice in Athens, left unconscious and bleeding in the street.

Despina Koutsoumba, the head of the archaeologists association who protested the attack said he worked on cases involving alleged violations on Mykonos and had been called as a witness in the past in trials resulting from those cases.

In an editorial, Kathimerini said the killing is especially troublesome, coming during a spate of underworld violence and broad daylight murders on the streets of Athens and police unable to rein in mobsters battling for turf and power.

“The Mafia now appears to control Mykonos. International organized crime has settled on the island, operating unchecked. The stakes for the state are high, fraught with risks. But this challenge must be met,” the paper said.

There’s been no reaction from the government over the murder at the same time it’s trying to attract even more development on islands that are being overrun with tourists and luxury resorts.

The paper added: “What is at stake is not just the future of a valuable destination. The critical question that needs to be answered is, ‘Who truly governs Mykonos: The Mafia or the Hellenic Republic?’”

*****

I’m done giving warnings, except for one that by now is regrettably old news to Mykonians: “Someone better wake up and deal with what Mykonos is confronting for the risk is far from confined only to its shores….”

 

––Jeff