A mob-style killing at a gas station in southern Athens has highlighted the brutality of the Greek mafia, where a key leader of Greece’s most powerful crime group was killed in the middle of the street, the BBC reports. The man was killed in the car by attackers who fired dozens of bullets from Kalashnikov assault rifles, and the footage captured by nearby video cameras is shocking.

The killing took place on Sunday, and the victim was Vangelis Zambounis, an important Greek underworld leader who allegedly ran a fuel and cigarette smuggling ring. More than 90 bullets were fired at him from a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Footage captured by cameras in the area and broadcast on television hours after the killing showed Vangelis Zambounis’ husband getting into an armored BMW parked in front of a gas station he owned in Neos Kosmos. Athens district.

Another car, later identified by police as a Lexus with false license plates stolen from Italy, pulls up behind the BMW. Two men in black and balaclavas get out of the car. One of them starts firing an AK-47 machine gun at the driver’s window at close range. It only pauses to recharge. He then pulls another gun from his jacket, opens the car door and fires again, while the second man also fires into the car from the other side. Then they both drive off in a Lexus.

Attention, images with a strong emotional impact!

Police later found the attackers’ car on the outskirts of Athens, according to the BBC, which noted that two policemen were arrested the day after the killing on charges of breaching privacy and leaking information to the media after the footage was broadcast on television.

The BBC writes that there are a number of assumptions about the reasons for the murder of Zambounis, one of which is that it was revenge for the murder of a mafia rival Vasilis Roubetis in June 2023. Another version is that the killing occurred amid tensions between local and foreign tobacco dealers who import cheap cigarettes from Ukraine.

Vangelis Zambounis survived an assassination attempt in 2018 when a man tried to shoot up his car, but his gun malfunctioned.

The daily Kathimerini writes that since 2017 there have been more than 20 gang-related murders in Greece.

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