Two hitmen responsible for the 2024 murder of Vangelis Zambounis in Neos Kosmos, Athens, attempted to erase all traces of their involvement—including physical evidence linking them to the crime. Yet they overlooked one crucial step: deleting the footage from a security camera installed inside the house they returned to immediately after the killing.
Footage Captures Every Move—and a Fatal Slip
As revealed by SKAI TV on the evening of Wednesday, 26 August 2026, the surveillance videos show frame-by-frame the suspects’ actions following the assassination. The footage begins with their return to the residence, followed shortly by their descent into the basement—where they proceed to cut up and destroy the firearms used in the murder. Both their movements and the distinct metallic sound of the weapons being dismantled were clearly captured by the camera mounted directly above the basement entrance.
Later in the recording, one of the men is heard speaking on the phone, stating plainly: “We’ve been down here in the basement for two hours… We cleaned everything. There’s nothing left—the phones, the belongings, everything, everything.”
Clear Facial Identification Leads to Arrest
The video also captures the face of the suspect known as the ‘Chinese man’ with striking clarity. At one point, he walks directly in front of the security camera at close range—staring straight into the lens. According to investigative reporting, this unmistakable image became the key piece of evidence tying him to the crime and triggering the police investigation.
Authorities cross-referenced the footage with a recent asylum application submitted by the 43-year-old suspect—containing his current photograph. This match enabled his formal identification and led to the issuance of an arrest warrant. He was ultimately apprehended in the Turkish-occupied areas of Cyprus on Tuesday, 26 August 2026.
A Costly Oversight: How Police Got the Footage
Three days after Zambounis’ murder, Greek police had already searched the same house—not in connection with this case, but as part of an unrelated investigation into the killing of another alleged member of the Greek Mafia, Giannis Skafouris. During that search, officers seized the hard drive containing the security camera footage—a piece of evidence the suspects had inexplicably failed to erase.
At the time, investigators had no idea that this footage would later prove decisive—not for the Skafouris case, but for solving the Zambounis assassination and identifying one of its perpetrators.