A 49-year-old Athens man, reportedly an educator at a private tutorial institute, was arrested on Thursday by police in relation to this week’s discovery of a weapons and explosive cache in a Pangrati-area apartment building’s storage room.
Speaking during a television appearance earlier in the morning, relevant public order Minister Michalis Chrisohoidis said he doesn’t believe the mini arsenal found in the storage room is related with a deadly bomb blast late last month in an Ampelokipi apartment. At the same time, he said investigations are ongoing into both cases.
Greek Police (EL.AS) this week announced that a half dozen firearms, including a sub-machine gun, hand grenades, detonators and more than 10 kilos of explosive material were recovered from the storage room. Just as ominous was the discovery of more than 37 kilos of the compound ammonium nitrate. The latter is a major component in industrial explosives.
The same reports had the space leased out for decades to unknown persons, with the owner only recently opening the storage room with the help of a locksmith. The owner, reportedly a retired military officer, said he was paid the monthly lease via an ATM transaction.
The suspect arrested on Thursday is allegedly the individual scene on CCTV footage paying the lease via ATMs, according to media reports.
