Suspects in anti-crime sweep charged with possession of weapons, explosives 

Four suspects arrested on Saturday in a police raid targeting organized crime were charged with possession of weapons and explosives on Saturday. 

Authorities identified the arrestees as two members of the Greek Navy’s special forces unit (known as OYK by their Greek initials), aged 33 and 32, the 32-year-old twin brother of one of the two SEALs who worked as a doorman at a well-known club in the downtown district of Gazi and has been accused of rape in 2018, and a 45-year-old former leading member of the Conspiracy of Fire Cells (alternately translated as Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei) terrorist group.

The two Navy SEALs and the doorman were known to police, as they have separately been accused in the past of dangerous bodily harm, violation of the laws on weapons and sports (possession of a flare launcher) and doping.

The link between the four seems to have been Vassilis Roubetis, a prominent member of the so-called Greek Mafia, who was murdered in Korydallos in June 2023 as part of an ongoing turf war between underworld figures, as all suspects allegedly had contacts with him in the past.

In his testimony before the prosecutor on Saturday, one of the SEALs allegedly claimed that he had forgotten the explosives in his bag after training and was going to return them to the Navy.

However, sources from the Ministry of Defense said that the specific type of explosives is not used by the Navy, and that no loss of material has been reported.Furthermore, these individuals were employed in administrative positions, not active combat.

The investigation into the four suspects started about a week ago, when the complaint was made that the Navy SEALs and the doorman were planning to supply the former terrorist group member with explosives.

The surveillance that followed showed no contact between the three suspects and the former Conspiracy member, neither by phone nor in person, sources said.

Officers who raided the houses of the four men found, among others, two boxes of TNT explosives, slow-burning fuses, a hand grenade, 281 cartridges of various calibers, bullets, flash-bang grenades, and four iron fists.