Sixth arrest made over high-profile Larnaca burglary
A sixth arrest has been made in connection with a high-profile burglary which was staged in Larnaca in February 2024, with a 31-year-old man appearing in court on Sunday.
The man was handed a five-day remand, with five other men, aged 43, 42, 41, 29, and 27 years old already having been arrested in connection with the case.
Four of those arrested – the 42-year-old, the 41-year-old, the 29-year-old, and the 27-year-old – are already serving life sentences in prison after having been convicted for their parts in the murder of Demetris Andronikou.
Andronikou was shot three times in broad daylight while riding a motorcycle in the Nicosia suburb of Lakatamia on April 23, 2024. One bullet hit him in the neck. He then died of sepsis arising from his gunshot wounds on May 28, 2024.
The robbery had been staged two months prior to the shooting, in the early hours of February 19, 2024, with four people gaining entry to a house in Larnaca which, according to newspaper Phileleftheros, belonged to a “well-known land developer who has been active in Larnaca for years”.
The four reportedly smashed the house’s back door in, before threatening its occupants – the man’s 58-year-old wife and two domestic workers – with garden shears, taking mobile phones and jewellery off their persons, before ordering the 58-year-old woman to open the house’s safe.
From the safe, they took watches, more jewellery, and cash, with the items stolen later found to have a combined value of €188,000.
When CCTV footage from the property was examined, a fifth perpetrator was identified, with it also found that the five had arrived at the property in a stolen vehicle, which they later abandoned in the riverbed of the Yermasoyia river.
A few days later, one of the watches which had been stolen from the property was spotted for sale on a social network platform, with it discovered that it had been sold to a jewellery shop in Lebanon.
The shop’s owner told the authorities that the watch had been “recommended” to him by people who had contacted him from Cyprus.
Following this call, the 41-year-old was arrested for the first time, with it being alleged that he had contacted the Lebanese jewellery shop owner, while a 30-year-old man was also arrested for selling two rings which had been stolen from the property to a jewellery shop in Nicosia.
The 41-year-old implicated the three other then-murder suspects, now convicts, in his testimony regarding the case, while the 43-year-old was arrested on February 11 this year.
The 43-year-old has appealed against his remand, with the court set to convene on Monday to hear that appeal.
Separate charges are being filed against the 30-year-old.