Extortion racket seen behind gas station shooting

Police in the Greek capital are reportedly investigating the possible links between gunshots fired in the early hours of Monday outside a gas station in the northeastern Attica suburb of Glyka Nera and organized crime rackets.

According to state broadcaster ERT, seven shots were fired into the air from a car outside a gas station that is run by the family of a 38-year-old man who was gunned down last June on Marathonos Avenue, in nearby Gerakas.

“I heard the first shot, got up to look at what was happening and saw the passenger shooting [while the car was] in motion,” an unnamed security guard working at the gas station at the time of the incident told ERT.

Security footage reportedly shows at least seven shots being fired from the car from the opposite side of Lavriou Avenue. No one was injured in the attack.

Police later retrieved two shell casings, which were identified as having been fired from a 9mm pistol. 

Investigators reportedly believe the shots were intended as some kind of message to the family of the 38-year-old who was gunned down by unknown assailants using a Kalashnikov assault rifle last summer, as he arrived to work at another gas station he owned.

The victim’s father had said at the time that his son was being blackmailed by a protection racket. The 38-year-old had come under investigation in 2014 in connection with extortion rackets operating in the wider Attica area, while shots had also been fired outside his Gerakas gas station in 2018.