A 31-year-old Greek national has been arrested in the German city of Viersen after being sought across Europe over Greece’s Greek mafia gangland war. Police have not yet released his identity. He is believed to belong to the cigarette-smuggling network run by a man known as “Entik“, and a European arrest warrant had been issued against him over three murders and one attempted murder of Greek Mafia members.

One of the killings he is accused of is that of Vaggelis Zabounis, known by the nickname “Zabon”, who was shot dead on 14 January 2024 in an ambush outside a petrol station he owned in the Athens district of Neos Kosmos. Zabounis was regarded as a heavyweight figure within the Greek mafia with a serious criminal record. He had been accused of leading an extortion group and of arranging contract killings, though no evidence was ever established against him, and he had survived an earlier assassination attempt in Piraeus in 2018.

At least three assailants travelling in a luxury Lexus approached the 44-year-old’s car, which was parked outside the petrol station, at the junction of Frantzi and Ilia Iliou streets, and shot him with three Kalashnikov rifles, firing 97 rounds.

How authorities traced him

Through intelligence gathering, data analysis and international cooperation, the Hellenic Police (ELAS) established that the 31-year-old had recently been in Viersen. A German police operation followed, and the man was arrested on Friday morning, 31 July. He is expected to be extradited to Greece in the coming period.

Police statement

As part of cooperation and information exchange between the Organised Crime Directorate and German authorities, a 31-year-old man against whom a European arrest warrant had been issued for three murders and one attempted murder committed in Greece was located and arrested in Germany on the morning of Friday, 31 July 2026.

Specifically, following investigations by the Subdirectorate for Crimes against Life and Property and international cooperation, it was established that the 31-year-old had recently been in an area of Germany.

The arrested man is a member of a criminal organisation that produced and trafficked large quantities of illegal tobacco products in Athens, Thessaloniki and regional areas, and which was dismantled in March 2025.

He was also facing convictions for the murder of a Greek national on 14 January 2024 in the Neos Kosmos area, and for membership of a criminal organisation responsible for bombings and arson attacks, along with arrest warrants over the kidnapping of a prison officer and illegal possession of a Kalashnikov-type assault rifle.