NAPLES – Police have arrested a suspected anarchist on charges of a bomb attack on the Greek Consulate in this southern city in 2021, police said Tuesday.

 Police investigations have established that the young man is seriously suspected of having carried out, together with an accomplice, an attack on the Honorary Consulate of Greece in Corso Vittorio Emanuele on March 4 2021. 

 The attacker, who was not immediately identified, used an improvised and illegally manufactured bomb consisting of an explosive pyrotechnic device called “Rambo,” assembled using rubberised paper and a can of Dove deodorant, which at the moment of detonation, caused both disruptive and incendiary consequences. 

 The attacker trained himself and independently acquired, through use of the internet and social media, instructions on the preparation and use of explosive materials for the purposes of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order. 

 Although never claimed, the attack appeared immediately ascribable to an anarcho-insurrectionist group, both for the way it was carried out and the type of device used, and for the existence, at that time, of an anarchist campaign of international solidarity with Dimitris Koufondinas, a former member of the Greek terrorist association “17 November”, detained in Greek prisons on hunger strike.  

 Police were able to identify the alleged attacker through forensic investigations, the viewing of CCTV and the analysis of telephone activity. These investigations also made it possible to ascertain the exact location where the suspect and his accomplice wore totally black clothing and masks in order to not be detected by the police.  

 The black clothing worn by the suspect on the day of the attack was found following a house search carried out on May 26, 2022, during which his smartphone was seized. Information on his phone showed a large amount of digital material about weapons, explosives and urban guerrilla techniques, as well as numerous articles about anarchism. 

 Judicial officials have made clear that the arrest of this young man is a precautionary measure, ordered during preliminary investigations, against which appeals are allowed. 

cw