Six arrests in Greece over guns, explosives: police

Police in Greece have arrested six people -- two of them suspected radical anarchists -- after finding a large haul of guns and explosives in various hideouts, officials said Sunday. The suspects, who are aged 21 to 30 and include a woman, were caught after police raids on Saturday in the capital, the port of Piraeus, the western town of Agrinio and the island of Crete, police chief Lefteris Oikonomou said. Two of the suspects were already wanted by police in connection with a radical anarchist group, Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, that was behind a parcel bomb campaign against European leaders and embassies uncovered last month. "The investigation is ongoing. We are still in the first phase," Oikonomou told a news briefing. The police had earlier indicated that nine people had been arrested. The operation began on Saturday in the Athens suburb of Nea Smyrni where officers caught two of the suspects, who were armed, outside a garage and subsequently found arms and explosives inside, the police said. Anti-terrorist police also fanned out across the capital and other Greek cities, locating more guns in alleged hideouts and making more arrests. In addition to Nea Smyrni, suspects were caught in the Athens suburb of Kallithea and the central district of Exarchia, an area with a strong anarchist affiliation. Arrests were also made in the city of Piraeus and the port of Sitia on the island of Crete, while police also found guns and a stolen car in the western town of Agrinio. Oikonomou said police had so far confiscated four Kalashnikov assault rifles, three submachine guns, eight handguns, four grenades, two bullet-proof vests, 50 kilogrammes (110 pounds) of industrial-grade ammonium nitrate explosives and 200 grammes of TNT. They also found stolen car license plates, wigs and full face hoods. Police had initially indicated that the case was likely linked to another far-left group, Revolutionary Sect, that has killed two people and which recently boasted of possessing a large arsenal. But early ballistic tests on the weapons have found no prior match to extremist activity, Oikonomou said. Revolutionary Sect in July sent a Greek newspaper a photo of its purported weaponry, among them three Kalashnikov assault rifles, a semi-automatic handgun and a dozen pistols. The police have failed to crack Revolutionary Sect, which surfaced in 2009 and earlier this year claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old journalist outside his home. A year ago the outfit had also shot dead an anti-terror officer guarding a witness in a left-wing militants' trial, and had machine-gunned a police station and the headquarters of a private television channel in Athens. Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei was so far known for arson and bomb attacks on government buildings and the offices and homes of Greek politicians. But last month, the group posted more than a dozen parcel bombs to European leaders and embassies in a campaign that caused alarm but no major injuries. Greece briefly halted mail and parcel dispatches abroad after one of the parcels, addressed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, made its way to the chancellery office in Berlin. Another package, intended for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was found inside a courier plane at Bologna Airport. Domestic extremism in Greece, the legacy of a brutal military dictatorship and mainly associated with the far-left and radical anarchists, has left some 30 people dead in the past three decades including a CIA station chief, a British military attache, police officers, journalists and businessmen.