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Special Police Forces at Greek Jail After Hostage Taking

Special police forces in Greece have arrived at the country’s largest prison, Korydallos, where three people are believed to be held hostage. The Justice Ministry officials said they believed at least one prison guard was taken hostage during visiting hours Monday by inmates at Korydallos prison, west of Athens.
Authorities said that they believed a gun had been smuggled into the prison during visiting hours earlier in the day and that the guards or visitors-it’s still not clear- were subsequently taken hostage.
“At the moment, the situation is calm,” Anestis told private television Antenna. He said suspected members of an armed anarchist group Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire were also involved in the failed escape attempt.
The drama protagonist  is no other than Panagiotis Vlastos- probably the most famous Korydallos inmate, who along with other criminals attempted to escape but in the end failed.Vlastos is keeping the hostages in order to negoiate his freedom with the Greek authorities. 
Having staged two previous escapes from Greek prisons, Vlastos, 41, is currently on trial at a special courtroom set up inside the prison accused of ordering the kidnapping of shipping tycoon Pericles Panagopoulos. The trial is the reason Vlastos was transferred to Korydallos prison from another jail in central Greece.
Panagopoulos, who made his fortune in the cruise and passenger shipping business, was kidnapped in January 2009, allegedly on the orders of Vlastos. Panagopoulos was released eight days later after his family paid a €30 million ransom to the kidnappers, most of whom were arrested later.
Vlastos has been involved in racketeering and other criminal activities from a young age and he first caught the public’s attention in the 1990s as a result of a turf war with other crime families, during which he lost one of his two brothers. His other brother was killed in a shootout with police in 1998, during Vlastos’ capture from his first escape from prison.

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