Two more remanded over suspected gangland plot

TWO MORE suspects were remanded in custody yesterday in connection with what police believe is a gangland murder plot foiled by their intervention on the night of Monday to Tuesday.

Kyriacos Sinesis from Kofinou and Giorgios Xiourouppas, 29 from Larnaca, appeared before a Limassol court yesterday after their arrest late on Tuesday. They were remanded for eight days.

Two young women arrested with the suspects were yesterday released without charge.

Two other men – Theodoulos Sinesis and Pavlos Kouilis – had been arrested and remanded earlier on Tuesday.

The latest arrests crowned a successful police operation that led to the discovery of what police believe to be two gangland murder plots. A sports bag containing 100 cartridges and believed to be linked to the case was also found on Tuesday night.

Police still want to question another man, named as Andreas Giorgiou Sinesis, in connection with the case.

The operation began on the night of Monday to Tuesday when police gave chase to a car spotted behaving suspiciously in the Limassol village of Kolossi. The car, driven by Theodoulos Sinesis and Kouilis, was followed into the city, and police saw the two handing three packages – later identified as automatic weapons – to the passengers of a black BMW. The men brought before the court yesterday are understood to have been the recipients of the guns.

Police arrested Theodoulos Sinesis and Kouilis on the spot, but lost trace of the BMW, which was yesterday found abandoned in a cul-de-sac near the Ayios Ioannis refugee houses in Limassol.

The three automatic weapons have not yet been found and police were yesterday combing through area between Ypsonas, Kolossi and Erimi. An earlier search had revealed the sports bag with the cartridges under a bush in Ypsonas.