After being extradited from Turkey, where he had fled with a gunshot wound in November, a northern Greek businessman suspected of masterminding four (4) Mafia-style executions and a twin bank heist in Macedonia was charged in Kavala yesterday with attempted murder and inciting robbery.
Andreas Chtenas, 45, of Kavala, was taken under heavy security measures from Thessaloniki to the eastern Macedonian town, where he was flown after his extradition from Istanbul on the basis of an international arrest warrant.
According to police, Chtenas accidentally shot himself in the leg during a gunfight with officers outside two (2) banks in Eleftheroupolis, near Kavala, that were attacked at the same time on October 3, 2002, by a gang of six (6) men, armed with assault rifles.
Before fleeing, the robbers managed to take less than €3,000.
Police detained four (4) Albanian suspects, whom Chtenas allegedly brought over from Albania ten (10) days before the robbery, as well as the businessman’s wife and son.
Chtenas entered Turkey two (2) days after the robbery by using a forged passport, bearing the name Antonios Dimitropoulos.
He was hospitalized and later imprisoned in Edirne after arriving. Chtenas told Turkish authorities that he was shot by unidentified assailants just inside the Greek border.
He is also suspected of being involved in the June 16, 2001 execution of three (3) men – two Kavala prefecture officials and a Hellenic Sugar Industry executive – in a holiday villa on the northern Aegean island of Thassos, as well as another murder in Kavala in July of last year.
A ballistic examination, according to police sources, matched the 9 mm gun, allegedly used by Chtenas in the Eleftheroupolis bank robberies with the bullets used in the Thassos killings.
