Two days after 61-year-old Andreas Rodotheou was murdered in Limassol by a contract killer, police are still searching for suspects. The murder is thought to be connected to the Ayia Napa mafia killings in July 2016. Four people, including Fanos Kalopsidiotis and a police officer, were shot in cold blood in an Ayia Napa restaurant.
Rodotheou died of a single bullet to the stomach on April 12, 2017.
The victim was connected with Kalopsidiotis - who was connected with the Ayia Napa underworld. Marios Christodoulou, aka Benny, was convicted of the four Ayia Napa murders, but it is thought that others were behind him, pulling the strings. The case is further obscured by police corruption.
Corrupt police involved in the quadruple Ayia Napa murder cases sent texts to members of the mafia identifying police movements, according to an independent investigation in September, 2016.
The probe was launched after it emerged that a Nicosia detective had made a telephone call to a Serbian hitman hired to carry out the murder of Ayia Napa mafia boss Fanos Kalopsidiotis.
Public danger
Three other people died in the crossfire in the crowded restaurant; hitman Jan Vogli, and two off-duty police officers, whose two children narrowly escaped being shot by hiding under a table.
Kalopsidiotis escaped no less than two other attempted contract killings in the last four years. Who is behind this blatant violence and why is it taking so long for police to find the masterminds?
It was an open secret that Kalopsidiotis was suspected of being heavily involved in drugs, betting and protection. He was arrested several times and released on various serious allegations. Contract killers targeted him twice before he was murdered, once in June 2012 and once in March, 2016. How did these miraculous escapes happen?
Murder attempt #1 – 2012
On June 23rd, 2012, five of Kalopsidiotis’ bodyguards were brutally murdered in the middle of Ayia Napa. By a strange coincidence, Kalopsidiotis was not in the luxury car in which his bodyguards died. The Greek hitmen who were caught right after the murders are serving five consecutive jail terms each, but they missed their prime target – Kalopsidiotis.
No one else was prosecuted in this case.
Murder attempt #2 – 2016
The police would then have the public believe that a second attempted murder was thwarted by ‘mistake’. According to a report by Phileleftheros newspaper, in March 2016, a Nicosia detective received a tip-off from Interpol that Kalopsidiotis was a target of a contract killing by Serbian criminals.
Instead of using the information to capture the criminals, the officer called the hitmen – by accident, according to police claims. The officer intended to call Interpol in Serbia but by some unexplained ‘error’ called the hitman, say the authorities.
As a consequence, the contract killing in March was called off, and Kalopsidiotis escaped yet again. But the people who wanted Kalopsidiotis dead didn’t stop there and he was finally executed in June 2016 in a crowded restaurant in Ayia Napa. One of the hitmen, Aleks Burreli is still on the loose and still a public danger.
Questions
Why didn’t the police arrest those responsible for ordering the hit in March 2016? They must have had enough information, they had the conspirator’s telephone number, after all.
Why did they have a hitman’s telephone number?
Why was there no information that Kalopsidiotis would be killed on June 23rd, 2016? Is the public now expected to believe that Interpol didn’t do its job this time and pass on the tip about the Albanian contract killers?
Is it possible they don’t know yet who was actually paying these contract killers? Highly unlikely, given the many attempts over the years.
Series of killings
Ten people have already been killed by the shadowy figures behind the contract killings. Rodotheou, Kalopsidiotis, five of their bodyguards in 2012, the Albanian shooter Jani Vogli in June 2016, and two police officers who were eating in the same restaurant when Kalopsidiotis was killed. Since the killings are still going on, it seems obvious that the real culprits haven’t been caught.
