Cyprus’s planned organised crime task force — widely referred to as the Cypriot FBI — is moving closer to launch, with a commander identified and premises secured, Phileleftheros has learned.
According to sources, Christos Andreou, the current head of the drug enforcement unit YKAN, is set to lead the new service. Andreou has overseen significant results in tackling drug trafficking during his time at YKAN.
A building to house the unit has been found and proceedings to purchase it are under way, sources said. The service is expected to be operational by May.
Justice and Public Order Minister Costas Fytiris has been driving the project forward and is working closely with the chief of police to ensure a smooth transition. Finding premises had been the single largest obstacle to establishing the unit.
Fytiris has previously said that tackling organised crime requires investigators to follow the money — tracing where large sums are moving and how criminal networks accumulate significant wealth.
The decision to create the unit was taken under Fytiris’s predecessor, Marios Hartsiotis, following contacts with Greek Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, who visited Cyprus alongside the head of Greece’s equivalent organised crime unit to discuss the initiative.
The Greek unit has delivered considerable results, including through telephone surveillance powers.
The new service is expected to bring together several existing units under one roof, including YKAN and the Intelligence Management and Analysis Service (YDAP). It is also expected to be bolstered by investigators from the crime investigation departments (CID), the economic crime unit (OPE) and specialists in finance and accounting.
The unit will have a direct line to the anti-money laundering authority MOKAS for the rapid issue of asset freezing and seizure orders.
YKAN and MOKAS have already frozen or seized assets worth more than eight million euros arising from drugs investigations, along with a large number of luxury vehicles, a pleasure craft, valuables and foreign currency, according to figures released publicly.
