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

A Week of New Experiences

Jeff—Saturday

This week’s been a busy one. It was publication week for ISLAND OF SECRETS, the long awaited paperback version of The Mykonos Mob, #10 in the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series.   In normal times, I’d be touring, something I love to do.  But like all else in our world, Covid-19 has changed that, making me wonder: "If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, do the books printed on the paper for which the dear tree gave up it’s life ever get read?”

I guess that’s sort of my way of apologizing for huckstering my book in this sacred space. Okay, not so sacred, but you get the point.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the plot of #10, I sincerely believe that its significant emphasis on empowering women earns it the tagline, “#Me Too Meets the Mob.”  Drilling down a bit more into the plot lines, Island of Secrets is about the place I call home, revealing the gritty, wildly lucrative dark side of an internationally renowned Aegean island playground for the world’s rich and famous, those battling for control of its vices, and the innocents affected by it all.

To read more, perchance to buy, here’s where to find Island of Secrets online.

Another uplifting note this week was my learning that Wiki.Ezvid selected me as one of “five authors who write gripping thrillers.”

Plus, the online magazine, Athens Insider, is running an interview with me today.

All that’s great, but the best news of all is something that has nothing to do with me.

My daughter is homeschooling her seven-year old clone; something many of you are undoubtedly familiar with these days.  My granddaughter’s weekly homework assignment includes submitting a journal describing significant events of the past week—like seeing rabbits in the backyard.

However, this week my daughter insisted that my granddaughter report on something else.  Something the younger one definitely wasn’t proud of admitting to publicly, but there was a lesson to be learned, and it was done in a way that brought honor to both parties.

The plot centers on a bag of Hall’s vitamin C citrus lozenges, a seven-year-old who was told not to take one because they’re not candy, and a little hand literally caught in the cookie jar [actually lozenge bag.]

The Temptress

The following four pages from my granddaughter’s journal reflect a progression from making up an excuse, “I accsadently” [crossed out on page 1], 

to anger at being caught, reflected in bold handwriting [page 2], 

to acceptance at what she’d done [page 3], 

culminating in a sincere apology [page 4].

Now, if only our leaders had the strength of a mom to press for accountability, and the courage and honor of a seven-year-old to own up to and learn from her mistakes. 

I’m very proud of you both.

Happy Passover, Happy Easter, and—on April 19—Kalo Paska! And most of all, STAY SAFE.

—Jeff

When Will We Ever Learn?

Jeff––Saturday

After a week in Dallas, sharing a spectacular Bouchercon experience with so many old friends and new, I returned to New York and began to catch up on the news in Greece.  What immediately caught my attention was a feature story in the newspaper Protothema reporting on events seemingly lifted straight from the pages of my latest novel, The Mykonos Mob.   

The lead to that article—titled the “Godfathers War with 5+1 Executions”—reads,  “How the financial crisis became the cause for the Mafia to spread its tentacles to smuggling, cocaine, prostitution, and Mykonos circles—How Kalishnikovs changed the map.”

That is all I shall say about that here. 

photo by Dimitris Popotas

 No, not (so much) out of concern for my personal safety but because of an article I later read in a different Greek newspaper, Kathimerini.  The author, Nikos Konstandaras is the newspaper’s managing editor, and he writes about how the electoral losses of Greece’s Nazi party, Golden Dawn, and its leaders facing criminal trials, should not lead one to “believe that our society has been freed of the danger of bigotry and violence.”

Though he writes about what Greece faces, much of what Mr. Konstandaras describes is chillingly relevant to the rest of Western civilization.  Here are his words, under the title, “The tide of anger”:

The greatest defeats don’t always come in the greatest battle; they may come gradually, with successive, small defeats, until suddenly the whole battlefield is under the enemy’s boot. In our country, the battlefield is the space of civilized political exchange, of democracy; its enemies are those who see this rivalry as a demand to destroy the enemy.

Close to 200 years after the start of the Greek War of Independence and we have still not harnessed our national energy to the service of the greatest national priority – survival and prosperity.

If the times were not so dangerous, with our region and the world in a state of flux, if Greece had no hopes of succeeding, these thoughts would have no meaning: On the one hand, they would be hyperbole and misplaced (after all, despite endless divisions Greece has come so far); on the other, if the war was already lost there would be no reason to hope that a change of mentality would be of any benefit. And yet, we continue to undermine ourselves. There are capable people in many parties but they are overshadowed by the loudmouths.

In the streets, on the airwaves and in social networks, threats and violence (verbal and physical) set the tone.

Most citizens hope for stability, for cooperation and progress. Our public debate, though, aims not at solutions but at eliminating or humiliating our rivals. Of course, we ought to be concerned about migration, about Turkey, about erratic America and sleepwalking Europe, about the exodus of our youth and our demographic decline. But we also ought to hope that with the crisis ending, we have the resources to improve our lot.

However, when the main parties reproduce the vocabulary and behaviors of the past, they themselves crush the space between them – and anyone who advocates consensus and cooperation.

When the sole target is political domination, then the most extreme citizens take things to extremes, believing that they have the right to replace political and judicial power; that only they can express what the nation ought to want.

Whether through “anarchists” who beat up a student or through “fascists” who knife an immigrant, the tide of anger reaches everywhere. The only possible solution would be from above – from responsible political leaders setting a good example, placing the interests of the nation above their own.

Well, said.  Now what?

—Jeff

Mykonos: A Place Much in Need of Order

Jeff--Saturday

This is an update to a post I wrote five years ago. I wish I could say nothing has changed. But a lot has changed—carrying the island full throttle in a direction most likely to end in tears.

A dozen years ago, one of the fictional characters in my debut novel, Murder in Mykonos, said, “I’m like a Mykonian: I’m used to living in a bordello—filled with police.”

Five years ago I heard a Mykonian say, “Mykonos is a brothel run by police.”

Today what’s heard is, “Mykonos is a brothel—abandoned by police.”

I guess you could call that evolution, but if you want to know who’s running it now, read my latest, The Mykonos Mob. That’s not meant as a commercial, but as a reality check.

The newly re-elected mayor has a lot of people rooting for him to take charge and address what I trust he already knows: Mykonos is in desperate need of order.

 Those with influence build as they wish wherever they want—beaches and building codes be damned; vehicle rental operations and private van services have clogged the island’s narrow roadways with LA rush hour type traffic; most drive and park with reckless disregard for each other and pedestrians; garbage and construction materials are dumped with impunity wherever convenient; noise regulations are disregarded; and municipal licensing and tax laws selectively ignored or unenforced. And I won’t even get into the ready availability of whatever may be your vice of choice, and its consequences to the public at large.

And why, pray tell, is all this done?

“For the benefit of the tourists.” is the answer often given, though in reality it’s for the benefit of those who profit off their presence.  That anything goes attitude has drawn hordes of a new breed of privateers flocking to the island—the “profiteers.”

Yet, it’s incontrovertible that tourists love it here.  At least a certain kind of tourist does. Why wouldn’t they?  Amid its beautiful beaches, heavenly weather, and pristine sea they can behave in a manner utterly unthinkable back home, for Mykonos has evolved into a place where rules are not enforced nor statistics made public that might shock some into clearer thinking on the downsides of unfettered personal freedom amid a place literally immersed in natural (and artificial) intoxicants.

It’s a three-month wide-open party. One that Mykonians once treated as a harmless tourist tsunami—sweeping in each June and receding by September—providing what they needed to keep their treasured island alive for the balance of the year. But the tsunami now carries away far more than it contributes, draining away the very spirit and identity of the island.

It is a place for profiteers unconcerned with the long-term health of the island. The businessman who avoids paying the fees and taxes he legitimately owes is not a colorful character beating the system, he’s a villain wrecking the future of every Mykonian child in the island’s underfunded schools, damaging the year-round quality of life for every Mykonian who must suffer with bad roads, understaffed public health facilities, unaffordable housing, and garbage polluting every vista, every nostril, every day. 

And it is a place beginning to draw negative press.  The island’s warning “canary in the mine” is badly staggering, Mr. Mayor.  It’s time to rally the Mykonians around your mandate, take charge, and restore much needed—and desired—order to a place we all love.

We’re rooting for you.

—Jeff

Cassandra Calling

By Evelyn De Morgan )1898)

Jeff—Saturday

I’m in San Francisco at the moment, less than a week into my book tour for The Mykonos Mob, and I planned in this week’s post on sharing photos of my past weekend at Left Coast Crime and The City by the Bay, but Thursday morning something so uncanny occurred that I knew I just had to share the experience. Some might take it as a continuation of last week’s BSP about my new book, but it honestly is not meant as such. It’s more about passing along some serious goose bumps.

Here’s the background leading up to what happened on Thursday morning.

The subject of my new book is rather self-evident from the title, and it opens with the assassination of a mobster who controls the protection rackets on Mykonos through his security businesses there tying him into the island’s highly lucrative nightclub and drug trade.  I refer to that seamy side of life in paradise as the World of the Night. Without giving away any spoilers, the hit occurs as the victim gets into his Mercedes, and the assassin turns out to be a Bulgarian.

I wrote that over a year ago, and submitted the final manuscript to my publisher last summer.

Two mornings ago I read an article appearing in The National Herald, America’s largest circulation Greek-American newspaper, in which it reports on developments in an event that occurred in Greece on October 31, 2018—long after I’d written and submitted the finished version of my book to my publisher.

Here’s that article, with the most goose bump raising similarities to my work highlighted in bold, and editorial comments in italics.

***

ATHENS – Greek police said a 30-year-old Bulgarian was detained for questioning in the Oct. 31, 2018 murder of 46-year-old Greek-Australian businessman Yiannis Makris, gunned down outside his home in the suburb of Voula.

Police also said they believe the man, whose name was not released in line with Greek privacy laws that don’t identify suspects unless they are politicians or celebrities, pulled the trigger, said Katherimerini [a Greek newspaper], which had published exclusive footage of the attack from CCTV cameras outside the home of Makris, who ran a security business but didn’t have a bodyguard.

The shooting happened just after Makris left his home and climbed into his Mercedes Smart car, the killer running up and firing through the driver’s window….

Australian investigators had been looking into Makris who was linked to a case in that country over the trafficking of  $13 million worth of drugs and the attempted murder of an underworld crime boss in Sydney, media reports had said.

[NB. Up to this point the parallels between that event and my fictional story are uncanny, but here comes the part that literally blew me away]

Makris is said to have owned a company offering security services … and to have recently invested heavily in nightclubs on the island of Mykonos where wealthy customers are routinely gouged and charged hundreds or thousands of euros for champagne and other luxury menu offerings, the restaurants often evading taxes but allowed to operate.

It was the first major outbreak of violence in three years in the country’s underworld, which the Greeks call the World of the Night the paper said, with criminal gangs able to use the country’s coastline to bring in drugs without detection.

***

My editor, Barbara Peters, has long called me Cassandra, and I’ve always laughed it off.  Perhaps it’s time to take a more serious look at how she ended up.

By Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1806)

 OUCH.

—Jeff

My Upcoming Book Tour Events

Saturday, April 6, 3:00 PM

San Francisco, CA

BOOK PASSAGE (Ferry Building-Embarcadero)

Author Speaking and Signing

Sunday, April 7, 3:00 PM

Orange, CA

BOOK CARNIVAL              

Author Speaking and Signing

Wednesday, April 10, 7 PM

Pasadena, CA

VROMAN’S (East Colorado)

Author Speaking and Signing

Friday, April 12, 7 PM

Dallas, TX

Interabang (Preston Oaks)

Author Speaking and Signing

Monday, April 15, 2:00 PM

Fountain Hills, AZ

Fountain Hills Community Center

Fountain Hills Friends of the Library Author Event

Tuesday, April 16, 7:00 PM

Scottsdale, AZ

POISONED PEN BOOKSTORE

Author Speaking and Signing

Wednesday, April 24, 6:30 PM

Houston, TX

MURDER BY THE BOOK

Author Speaking and Signing

Friday, April 26, 7:00 PM

Denver, CO

TATTERED COVER (East Colfax)

Author Speaking and Signing

Monday, April 29, 7:00 PM

Pittsburgh, PA

MYSTERY LOVERS BOOKSHOP

Author Speaking and Signing

Wednesday, May 1, 6:30 PM

New York, NY

MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP

Author Speaking and Signing

Thursday, May 2, 7:00 PM

Naperville, IL

ANDERSON’S BOOKSHOP

Author Speaking and Signing

Friday, May 3, 7:00 PM

Chicago, IL (Forest Park)

CENTURIES & SLEUTHS  BOOKSTORE

Author Speaking and Signing

Saturday, May 4, 2 PM

Milwaukee, WI

BOSWELL BOOK COMPANY

Author Speaking and Signing

Thursday May 9, 5:00 PM

BRISTOL, UK

CRIMEFEST—Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel

Panelist on “Nobody Would Believe it if You Wrote it: Fake News, Post-Truth and Changing Words,” with Fiona Erskine, William Shaw, Gilly Macmillan, moderated by Paul E. Hardisty

Friday, May 10, 5:10 PM

BRISTOL, UK

CRIMEFEST—Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel

Panelist on “Sunshine Noir,” with Paul Hardisty,  Barbara Nadel, Robert Wilson, moderated by Michael Stanley

October 31-November 3

DALLAS, TX

BOUCHERCON 2019---Hyatt Regency Dallas

Panel Schedule Yet to be Announced