WELL-KNOWN Larnaca businessman Antonis Fanieros was yesterday remanded in custody for eight days in connection with a string of alleged offences including participation in a criminal organisation, extortion, abduction and assault.
Fanieros, 67, was arrested at his home on Thursday evening, during a large police operation that included the elite anti-terrorist squad.
Police said the offences had been committed between 2010 and this year.
“There is testimony that the suspect employs specific individuals to collect money from people who lost money at his casinos and would not pay,” sergeant Ioannis Yiorkadjis told the court.
Police said the collectors – around five people, mostly foreign nationals – used threats and violence to force people to pay.
Along with Fanieros, the raid netted two — foreign — EU nationals aged 38 and 35 who had been working as bodyguards.
They are considered dangerous for public safety and will be deported police said.
A third foreign EU national, 33, was arrested in connection with the possession of a pepper-spray discharger and a stun gun.
Police also arrested a 33-year-old Cypriot carrying a disassembled hunting shotgun in his vehicle.
Authorities have issued arrest warrants for three more suspects.
Fanieros told the arresting officers “I don’t know what you’re telling me,” the court heard.
A search of various establishments belonging to Fanieros came up with a large amount of cash, property title deeds, laptops, mobile phones and gambling paraphernalia, police said.
Apart from collecting debts, the suspect ordered his staff to carry out other illegal activities.
The court heard that in June 2010, the suspect instructed two of his “employees” – currently sought by police – to set fire to the Diamond Casino Club at the village of Deftera, in the Nicosia district, because it competed with his casinos in Larnaca.
At around the same period, Fanieros allegedly instructed the two men to find a specific person who owed him €80,000 in gambling debts.
The debtor was located and taken to the suspect’s club where he was beaten and forced to sign some documents, police said.
Fanieros is also suspected of ordering his two men to visit the offices of a Larnaca man and smash everything.
After a second ransacking of his offices, the debtor met Fanieros and a deal was struck to pay up in a week, the court heard.
A week later, the “employees” were sent to the debtor’s offices for a third time, broke down the door and beat up him and another man who resisted, police said.
“They forced the victim to sign the transfer of property to the suspect,” the police investigator said.
Christos Ioannides, defending, argued that the police request for his client’s remand was not justified.
There is no “reasonable suspicion connecting the suspect with the commission of the offences”, Ioannides said.
He also asked the court to ignore testimony concerning illegal gambling, since they were not the object of the case.
Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said the force had made good on its warning “to target specific individuals who were under the impression that they can act and behave above the law”.
“No one can be above the law and those who get out of line will be in the crosshairs of the police,” Katsounotos said.
He said Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou is urging the public to capitalise on the opportunity and provide authorities with information regarding criminal acts.
Fanieros was again targeted by police in November 2010 as part of an anti-gambling raid.
He had denied at the time of being involved with online gambling and a much-publicised extrajudicial ring that collects private debts.
In 2001, Fanieros was jailed for five years in connection with a share scam.
He survived an attempt against his life in May 1997, sustaining serious injury that has left him with permanent damage to the larynx.
