They are all accused of a series of felonies, including participation in a criminal organisation that was planting bombs for money. So far, sixteen people have been arrested by the Greek police.
(A recent foiled bombing in Metamorfosi is attributed to the extortion ring.)
Tsochatzopoulos apparently told one member of the extortion ring that Yiannis Sbokos, the former general secretary of armaments, received a suitcase containing 10 million euros on his behalf which he never passed on.
With the aim of obviously getting their hands on this money the gang began pressuring Sbokos for the money and organized three bomb attacks against the relatives of the former general secretary.
Tsochatzopoulos is accused of instigating the bomb attack against a building owned by the Sbokos family.
While the ringleaders are all imprisoned, they appear to have operated with impunity, being allowed to use mobile phones and were allowed visitors whenever they wanted in prison. The investigation also details how one ring member brutally assaulted a female visitor with the prison guards not intervening.
The investigation also reports to on a 54-year-old alleged accomplice of notorious November 17th member Christodoulos Xiros, who was recently recaptured in Kalamata. The former police officer seems to have been employed to pressure Tsochatzopoulos and Sbokos to comply with the ringleader demands.
The case file also contains the deposition of a long-term convict involved in the case, who alleges he knows the identity of the shooters who killed two Golden Dawn members in November of 2013.
The convict notes that while he was not involved in the shooting, he supplied the shooters with the white helmets.
It should be noted that the activities of the ring, apart from extortion and bomb attacks, included contract killings, some of which involved prison officials.
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