Organised crime in Cyprus now ‘often a foreign import’

Organised crime in Cyprus is now often imported from abroad, Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis said on Wednesday.

Addressing a behind-closed-doors session of the House legal committee held in light of the murder of Limassol businessman Stavros Demosthenous last week, which was also attended by police chief Themistos Arnaoutis, he stressed that organised crime “exists and will continue to exist”, and that it “evolves in terms of the methods followed from time to time”.

He then added that it is now being imported from abroad, and that as a phenomenon, it is “not unique to Cyprus”.

“Organised crime will never be eradicated. However, the state’s obligation is to take all measures at its disposal to limit to the greatest possible extent the spread of organised crime on the territory of our country,” he said.

Returning to the matter of “imported” organised crime, he said that in the past, organised crime in Cyprus was “purely Cypriot” and “of Cypriot interests”, but that nowadays, many people “come to Cyprus to commit crimes on behalf of others, whether in Cyprus or abroad”.

He also said that while many such crimes used to be carried out at night, they are now known to happen during the day, before making reference to the jewellery heist staged at the Louvre in Paris on Sunday.

Then, he returned to the matter of “foreign elements”, saying that a “large percentage” of people incarcerated at the central prison are not Cypriot nationals.

“It worries us. The groups of foreign individuals operating in Cyprus must be mapped, so that they can be monitored to the greatest extent possible,” he said.

Despite this, he said, “we are not in uncharted waters”, with the government and the police now working hard to combat organised crime.

“Special units have been established in the police which deal exclusively with organised crime. Organised crime is being mapped,” he said, before going on to list the assets frozen by the government in its fight against organised crime.

He said those assets included €25 million in cryptocurrency, while between January last year and May this year, €1.2m worth of physical assets, including “houses, apartments, hotels, jewellery, valuables, even church icons” were all seized.

“There is always room for improvement. That is where we are aiming,” he said, before adding that while organised crime would not be eliminated, all appropriate measures must be taken to contain them.

Asked by MPs about the Demosthenous murder and its possible links to people who are already in prison, he said that “we have not yet reached definitive conclusions in this particular case”.

“Mobile phones and drugs are a perennial problem in prisons. It will not be solved permanently,” he said, before conceding the prison building “is not airtight”.

“Prisoners receive visits, go out to relatives, and communicate with conventional phones inside the prisons. Certainly, mobile phones contribute to or provide further convenience for someone to organise [crime], but the disappearance of mobile phones is not a panacea for organised crime being organised from prisons,” he said.

He said that very strong measures were being taken to fight back against the use of mobile phones in prisons, including an increase in raids of cells, which had turned up hundreds of mobile phones in recent years.

Additionally, he said, the government plans to introduce a mobile phone deactivation system and more modern CCTV cameras into the prison, though he did then say that “we should not be overly optimistic that we will eliminate drugs and mobile phones”.

After the session, Disy MP Nikos Georgiou said that “unfortunately, in our country, organised crime is growing and poses a threat to public safety, social cohesion, and the economy of our country”.

“In this fight, good cooperation between the executive and legislative branches is required, so that on our part, we can proceed with the passage of laws and bills which will concern surveillance,” he said

Meanwhile, Akel MP Andreas Pasiourtides said his party was deeply concerned about three serious issues.

The first, he said, is that “in recent years, organised crime has become completely brazen”.

“It cannot be considered normal and acceptable to witness such actions in broad daylight,” he said.

He said Akel’s second issue was the participation from the prison in organised crime.

“It is now a common belief that the central prison tends to turn from a penitentiary institution to a crime directorate,” he said, adding that the matter of mobile phones in prisons had been discussed for a decade.

“This shows that we are powerless to close a big door which makes it easier for criminals to do their jobs.”

The third and final issue, he said, is that “society’s feeling of insecurity is intensifying”, and that while both Hartsiotis and Arnaoutis have “tried to mitigate this feeling”, people are “constantly in a state of fear”.

He said violent criminal acts are taking place “in cities, on central avenues, and in five-star hotels”.

“This cannot be considered normal for a state governed by law.”