The police are now convinced that the same mastermind is responsible for both recent gangland murders, those of Thanasis Kalogeropoulos in Limassol and Alexis Mavromichalis in Nicosia, according to local media reports.
Phileleftheros daily reported that the police reached this conclusion based on existing evidence, indications, and information analysed by investigative authorities.
It is believed that the same individual orchestrated both murders, which occurred within 38 hours at the end of October.
Despite the connection between the murders, the police, according to the same report, are certain that the actual perpetrators are different, emphasising that this was not a random choice.
As reported, the intention of the masterminds was to execute their plans in a way that would create confusion within law enforcement regarding the extent of the connection between the two crimes.
Recently uncovered evidence has boosted the authorities’ confidence in the connection between the two murders.
However, due to the absence of testimonies establishing a legal basis for further action, the hands of the police seem to be tied.
Initially, the police linked the two crimes because of their sequential occurrence and the presence of similar elements, particularly in the modus operandi of the perpetrators.
The victims, 55-year-old Thanasis Kalogeropoulos and 45-year-old Alexis Mavromichalis, were both brutally murdered in what appeared to be gang-related incidents.
Broad daylight
Kalogeropoulos was gunned down on October 30 in broad daylight near a busy Limassol avenue, having been shot ten times.
Mavromichalis was assassinated on October 31 by a sniper while on the balcony of his Nicosia apartment. Intriguingly, both victims not only knew each other but also played significant roles as witnesses in previous gangland murders.
However, as evidence remained elusive, the connection was temporarily set aside, and the focus shifted to separately identifying the perpetrators of each crime.
Four individuals have been sent to trial for Kalogeropoulos’s murder and are currently in custody. In contrast, for Mavromichalis’s murder, the situation is different.
Some 43 days after the heinous act at his Nicosia apartment, police investigations continue with no progress in tracking the movements of the perpetrators.
Investigators from the Nicosia Criminal Investigation Department persist in their search for closed-circuit footage that may have recorded the escape of the perpetrator or their accomplice.
Additionally, they are analysing the telecommunications data from the mobile phones used.
Phileleftheros reported that the perpetrator used an automatic FN rifle, no longer used by the National Guard and suspected to have been obtained from the Turkish-occupied north.
