The police have obtained a clear picture of the emergence, calmness and the return of the armed groups operating in recent years. After the neutralization of "17 November" and "Revolutionary People's Struggle", the "Revolutionary Struggle" group took over the main armed actions in 2003 and carried out 15 armed attacks, under the guidance of Nikos Maziotis who is 42 years old today. The activity of "Revolutionary Struggle" has probably been funded with the 600,000 euro collected from a seven-member band called the "robbers in black" through six bank robberies in 2003-2006.
For many of them, who are at liberty today, there was evidence that they had been involved in the bloody attack against the police station in Agia Paraskevi carried out by the "Weapons" group on 28 October 2009 in connection with the reward for providing information about the "robbers in black", which had been announced a few hours earlier." They are connected, through a DNA sample from a hat found nearby, with a gun stolen from the guard of the chairman of the Supreme Court at the time, Romilos Kedikoglou, in Glyfada in May 2007. Now, among other things, the authorities are examining whether some of these anarchists are connected with the attack on the members of Golden Dawn.
In addition, there are available data that a group of gunmen in Thessaloniki supported the "Revolutionary Struggle" group, which involved wanted criminal Vassilis Paleokostas, who had sent, in June 2010, a parcel bomb that had caused the death of officer Giorgos Vassilakis in the building of the Ministry of Public Order on Katehaki Street.
Joint offenders
In the period 2003-2011, the groups "Popular Revolutionary Action", "ENEDRA" (Armed Revolutionary Action) and "Popular Will" acted consistently and carried out nearly 15 bomb attacks, which are believed to have had a common "operational body". In the period 2006-2009, the anti-terrorism forces collected numerous data on them, mostly from errors in their telephone conversations, and identified at least two of their members, but did not use them.
So, the authorities are now examining whether members of "Popular Revolutionary Action", "ENEDRA" and "Poplar Will", who had then escaped the police ring, are now involved in the new armed formation, namely "Group of People’s Fighters" that, with a delay of 6 months, assumed on 26 June responsibility for the attack on the offices of New Democracy on Syngrou Avenue, which attempted to launch a RPG- 7 grenade. The Greek police note that the motorcycle used in the bloody attack in Neo Iraklio had been stolen from Kallithea 24 hours after the publication of the proclamation, which warned of new attacks by the "Group of People’s Fighters".
According to the police, it seems that Nikos Maziotis and his girlfriend Paula Roupa, both on the run from the beginning of summer 2012, are involved in the specific armed group. A few days before the murder of the members of Golden Dawn in Neo Iraklio the Greek police had published information that, from the spring of 2012 to August 2013, Nikos Maziotis along with 5-6 unknown accomplices had carried out five well organized bank robberies in Nemea, Akrata, Spetses, Methana and Velestino, their loot amounting to 1.5 million euro. The authorities are now investigating whether this big return of the 42-year-old anarchist and the emergence of the "Group of People’s Fighters" are associated with the last attempt.
Emergence of a new group
Over the past five years, the mass group of young anarchists "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei" has been "very active" and carried out more than 200 attacks, including bombings, sending of parcel bombs, etc. It is considered that part of this mammoth-group belongs to the "Sect of Revolutionaries", which has not appeared since July 2010 when journalist Sokratis Giolias was murdered in Ilioupoli. From September 2009 to 2013, the Greek police seized at least 40 members of this group and its followers who are countless.
According to policemen, through this series of arrests, the police have neutralized the "Sect of Revolutionaries". Furthermore, there was evidence that members of the group had armed themselves with Glock pistols from Finland, with the help of individuals from Kavala and the island of Crete. There are clues that associate them with a group of known criminals.
In June 2013, an electronic text was published, stating that "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei", the "forgotten" "Sect of Revolutionaries" and the international terrorist group FAI are uniting within the "Phoenix" plan to revive the urban guerrilla warfare. According to many representatives of the Greek police, the attack against Golden Dawn was probably the culmination of the "Phoenix" plan but it may also be associated with the emergence of a new terrorist group.