Pafos Live 2 February 2024
The arrest of a 23-year-old man was carried out by the YKAN (Paphos Unit) to facilitate investigations into an ongoing case of illegal possession of drugs for the purpose of supplying and using a controlled drug class A and B, namely cocaine and cannabis.
According to the Pafos Assistant Police Director of Operations, Michalis Nicolaou, on February 1st at around 21:15 a member of the Pafos Traffic Police intercepted a car driven by a 23-year-old permanent resident of Paphos on Poseidonos Avenue.
A subsequent search inside the car allegedly found cannabis weighing 80 grams as well as white powder resembling cocaine, weighing 3 grams.
He was then arrested for flagrant offenses and taken to the Offices of YKAN, which undertook the investigation of the case.
Under questioning, the 23-year-old allegedly said he possessed the drugs for his own use. The 23-year-old tested positive and was subsequently taken into custody.
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Filenews
An incredible family story has taken the path of justice and is expected to be heard in the near future before the Limassol District Court, with a 67-year-old mother complaining and her 31-year-old son accused. The hypothesis could be described as a novel, however, it is completely real and behind it, there seems to be a gambling addiction.
According to confirmed information by philenews, the accused allegedly secured a sum of €370,000 by selling his mother's property, without her knowing anything. The 31-year-old, in order to get rid of some who lent him money, allegedly forged his mother's signature and with a forged power of attorney sold at a ridiculous price, two apartments in a coastal area of the Larnaca district. He also fabricated a forged purchase document for two other houses of the complainant in Limassol.
The case was reported by the complainant around mid-January 2024 and the 31-year-old defendant was arrested by the ICF Limassol and detained. Yesterday, he was taken back to Court where the case was registered. The police requested that the accused remain in custody until the start of the trial, with his lawyer, Marina Lavithia, not objecting to the request, reserving her right to the next proceedings.
According to the complaint and what the complainant alleged, it all started last August, when the 31-year-oldkept asking her for money, telling her that he owed friends who had lent him. The 67-year-old, having no other choice, withdrew €40,000 from the bank and repaid three people from whom her son had allegedly borrowed money, without the latter telling her why the 31-year-old was borrowing.
After much pressure, the 31-year-old revealed to his mother that he owed some people €250,000, telling her he would go to jail. The 67-year-old decided to help him and go to the Land Registry to sell properties in her name. At that time, she found out that using a power of attorney document which bore her signature and was forged, two apartments she owned in the district of Larnaka had been sold. In addition, she found that there was a purchase document deposited with the Land Registry for her houses in Limassol.
According to the 67-year-old, the apartments had been transferred to people she did not know, while the two houses in Limassol were bought by a foreign person who did not know either.
Following the complaint to the authorities, the 31-year-old was arrested by the ICF of Limassol. According to "F", the interrogator allegedly confessed that he made these sales as he was addicted in recent years to online gambling and specifically to football betting. Despairing of the large amount of money he borrowed from some, he claimed that he decided to sell his mother's real estate to pay off. The defendant faces the offences of forgery, circulation of a false document, fraudulent real estate transactions, drawing up documents without authority, obtaining property by false representations, fraud in the sale and money laundering, with the amount reaching €370,000.
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The trial at the Paphos Assize Court for the death of 58-year-old Ioannis Polycarpos in Kato Paphos in January 2023, with a 45-year-old British permanent resident of Cyprus as an accused, is expected to begin today after several postponements.
The Assize Court decided to postpone the trial until today to allow time to decide whether to amend the indictment from premeditated murder to manslaughter. Since then, the accused has remained in custody at the Central Prison.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge of premeditated murder, but also to charges of possession of burglary tools, assault weapon and cannabis, while admitting only to the use of cannabis.
The unfortunate Polycarpou, who was riding a small displacement motorcycle on the evening of January 21, 2023 on Tombs of the Kings Avenue, was fatally injured when he was deliberately dragged away, according to the charge, by a vehicle driven by the 45-year-old British man who immediately after fleeing the scene and after they had an argument in a nightclub where they were both having fun.
The 58-year-old was injured in the collision and taken by ambulance to Paphos Hospital, where he was pronounced dead while the British man attempted to erase the traces of impact on his vehicle using paint.
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Following a coordinated operation by the Anti-Narcotics Agency, a quantity of cannabis weighing approximately 3 kg and 200 grams was located and seized yesterday afternoon.
Specifically, around 5 yesterday afternoon, members of the YKAN intercepted in an area of Larnaka, a car driven by a 28-year-old, with a 40-year-old co-driver, both residents of Larnaca.
The 26-year-old driver tried to flee, as a result of which his car collided with a bus in front, as well as with official vehicles and then stopped.
In a subsequent search, inside the luggage compartment of the car, two nylon packages containing a quantity of cannabis, weighing approximately 3 kg and approximately 220 grams, were found.
In the possession of the 40-year-old passenger, two gas sprays and a bat were found.
Both the 28-year-old and the 40-year-old were initially arrested for flagrant offences and then on court warrants and taken into custody to facilitate interrogations.
Today they are expected to be brought before the Larnaca District Court for the issuance of detention orders.
The YKAN (Larnaca Unit) continues the examinations.
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Cyprus Police
A case was registered against four people yesterday at the District Court of Limassol, in connection with a case of violence in the stadiums. They are men aged 39, 28, 26 and 21 years old, who were arrested for the incidents that unfolded in the football match between Apollon and AEL, which was scheduled to be held on January 24, 2024. The Court set the case for trial on 13/05/2024 and ordered the defendants to sign a personal guarantee of €10,000 and to appear once a week at a Police Station. They were also banned from entering all sports venues until the case was heard.
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A coordinated police operation in Nicosia and Larnaca based on information about felony planning took place in the early hours of yesterday.
As "F" is aware, members of the Force, including men from the ICF Headquarters and the MMAD, simultaneously executed search warrants at the Central Prison and at a house in Ormidia around 03:00 in the morning on Thursday.
The searches took place in the cell of a convicted man of a serious drug case and in the residence of a friend of the former. Police allegedly seized phones in the possession of the two people. The necessary tests on these mobile phones are expected to follow.
According to our source, the police operation was carried out following information obtained and the two persons allegedly conspired to execute a very serious crime. He did not clarify, however, whether this is a case that is already of concern to the prosecuting authorities.
However, as we know, no arrest warrants were executed.
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in-cyprus
As investigations unfold in Cyprus, Portugal, and Latvia under the auspices of Europol, the network of a large international sham marriage ring, centered around Cyprus, is being unraveled.
So far, 15 individuals have been arrested (13 in Cyprus), while the mastermind of the scheme and 19 others are wanted, believed to be within the territory of the Republic.
Some of the suspects, apprehended by the Larnaca CID, are allegedly involved in a total of 133 sham marriages conducted in Cyprus, involving women and men from Portugal and Latvia, as well as nationals from third countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
Grooms and witnesses at the weddings seemingly swapped roles, raising questions about the municipal authorities who officiated them.
The investigations into the case have been ongoing for months, and on Monday, January 29, the three countries conducted a simultaneous European operation under the code name “Operational Task Force Limassol,” with Cyprus taking the lead.
The information provided to Cypriot authorities came from Portugal in November 2020.
According to this information, women and men from Portugal and Latvia were travelling to Cyprus and conducting sham marriages with foreigners, aiming to secure residency permits in the Republic and later travel to other European countries.
An investigative team was established in Cyprus for this serious case, which managed to collect evidence for 133 sham marriages, 107 of which were reportedly performed at the Aradippou Municipality, 25 at the Nicosia Municipality, and one at the Livadia Municipality.
Investigations at the Municipalities revealed that some of the foreign nationals officiating the weddings were subsequently witnesses in weddings.
The international network seems to have operated on a pyramid scheme system, recruiting individuals to recruit others, with payments varying according to each person’s involvement.
Third-country nationals wishing to marry reportedly paid, according to testimonies from brides, up to €10,000 for each marriage.
Apart from the alleged Indian mastermind of the scheme, against whom a European arrest warrant was issued, two women and two men are believed to have played pivotal roles, arrested both in Cyprus and abroad.
One of these is the wife of the alleged Indian mastermind, who appears to have recruited brides and grooms from Portugal.
Two Indians arrested in Cyprus, aged 25 and 37, reportedly sent various sums to her to secure freedom certificates for the brides and grooms.
Another significant aspect under scrutiny by Cypriot investigators is the submission of forged documents to the Immigration and Aliens Service.
When brides and grooms arrived in Cyprus, they allegedly submitted fake rental documents to an officer of the Immigration and Aliens Service, in order to convince them that they were living together with their spouses.
Additionally, they submitted employment agreements with various employers, believed to be fake, as well as insurance documents.
The insurance documents were issued by a specific office in Nicosia, where the foreign spouse of a woman who is alleged to have recruited brides from Latvia worked as an insurance agent.
This woman was also arrested last Monday.
Thirty-three brides were questioned in the case, who reportedly admitted in their testimonies that their marriages were a sham.
According to their own accounts, they were picked up from Larnaca and Paphos airports by the two Indians who are currently under arrest and were given instructions on what to say to the Municipalities and the services transporting them.
The 13 suspects in Cyprus were remanded in custody until February 7 by the Larnaca District Court.
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Filenews
The 35-year-old, who allegedly used a pistol and committed thefts and burglaries while heavily pregnant, was indicted in a direct trial before the Permanent Assize Court that will meet on February 28 in Larnaca.
Her 27-year-old alleged accomplice was also put on trial. The 35-year-old had been pursued twice by police, in one of which several shots were fired. He was eventually located by the police along with the 27-year-old and in their possession were found everything from gold to hard drugs.
The defendants face offenses including conspiracy to commit a felony, unlawful possession and transportation of a weapon, carrying a firearm to incite terror, malicious damage, burglary of a building, unlawful possession of property, theft, unlawful supply, possession and use of drugs. The offences in question were allegedly committed between November 2023 and January 24, 2024. Until February 28, the accused will remain in custody.
The first complaint against them was made on November 15, 2023 when a petrol station owner on the Larnaka-Dhekelia road reported that the two suspects argued with an employee, with the 35-year-old firing a shot into the air with a pistol. According to his testimony, the suspect was about to give birth at the time.
Further reports of theft and burglary followed, while police received information that the 35-year-old and the 27-year-old met with marked persons and that threats were exchanged and pistols were drawn. The 35-year-old, meanwhile, gave birth in the meantime and the child was picked up by the relevant services.
In order not to be arrested, the 35-year-old was staying in her vehicle and in the early morning of January 16 she was seen driving it to Livadia. There he was pursued and despite many shots fired by members of the Police, he developed dizzying speed and disappeared. The next day, the owner of a car repair company in Athienou reported the theft of a jeep car from his premises.
The vehicle was spotted outside a well-known hotel in Larnaca, where the two who were located and arrested were staying.
