Larnaca police investigating gangland-related murder (update 2)

Police on Wednesday were investigating the gangland-related murder of a 53-year-old man who had been gunned down outside his Larnaca home the previous evening.

Andreas Evangelou was parking his car on the ground floor of the apartment building where he lived at around 8pm when he was shot several times by a gunman who had arrived on a moped together with another individual.

Footage from security cameras showed the two perpetrators on a moped approaching Evangelou the moment he parked his car. One of them got off and shot him from close range.

Police said he had suffered an unknown number of gunshot wounds. A resident of the building said he heard three shots.

After the post mortem, it emerged that Evangelou was shot six times, to the back, right arm and head.

The camera also caught an individual in Evangelou’s passenger seat fleeing the scene soon afterwards.

Reports said police tracked the man down and determined he was a foreign national who had nothing to do with the murder.

Crime scene officers collected evidence from the scene while Evangelou’s car was taken to the police lab for forensics examination.larnaca murder

Police spokesman Christos Andreou said shell casings had been collected from the scene but declined to give more details pending ballistics tests.

The spokesman said the man’s phone was being examined while various individuals who knew him were being questioned.

Investigators suspect that the killing could be related to a drug bust that took place in 2019. Evangelou’s son Yiannis, 26, and his son-in-law Marios Georgiou, aka Mariouthkias, 34, had been arrested on suspicion of trafficking 1.5 kilos of cocaine.

His son was jailed for six years while Georgiou got two. Both turned state’s witness with Georgiou released in March 2020.

Georgiou was gunned down in April this year in the Kiti area before testifying.

He was returning home from the gym when he was ambushed in what was a well planned and executed hit.

Yiannis Evangelou, who was placed in witness protection, testified recently.