ATHENS – The Greek police’s crackdown on mob violence wasn’t able to prevent another slaying, this one of a leading figure in the so-called Greek Mafia, Yiannis Skaftouros, who was was shot dead by gunmen on at least two motorcycles.

Kathimerini said the killing came as the murderers drove past his holiday hoe in the village of Skourta, in the region of Viotia, and that AK-47 Kalishnikov assault rifles were used in the attack. He was 55.

His 22-year-old daughter and a 45-year-old man, an in-law, were injured in the gunfire and have been hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Skaftouros, the paper said, was tied to murders, extortion, arson and gang activities and the 2009 abduction of shipping magnate Pericles Panagopoulos but was released from prison under a leniency law passed by the former Radical Left SYRIZA government despite serving four life sentences.

The paper said he likely let down his guard over the Easter holiday that saw people celebrating the easing of COVID-19 health restrictions during the lingering pandemic, no motive given for the killing.

Whenever he went outside, he was with bodyguards but made an exception this time for Easter as he went to his ancestral village and the letdown cost him his life.