Armed Groups of the Protectors (Anarchist Entity, Greece)

• Local Name: Ένοπλες Ομάδες Πολιτοφυλάκων
• Transliteration: Énoples Omádes Politofylákon
• Alternatives: N/a
• Status: 2016 – 2016 Disbanded
• Conflicts: Greek Anarchist Militancy

The Armed Groups of the Protectors [EOP; Enoples Omades Politofylakon] was a short-lived anarchist militant outfit operating in Athens. On Jul. 07, 2016, two motorcycle-borne gunmen shot and killed an Egyptian drugs dealer on a street in the Exarchia neighborhood of the city.¹ A few days later, the EOP claimed responsibility for the attack.² In its statement, the group claimed to have killed the criminal to avenge his assault on three anarchists in March 2016.³ The EOP warned drugs dealers to stay out of Exarchia and accused the state of cooperating with the mafia.⁴

The incident followed several months of tit-for-tat violence between drugs traffickers and anarchists in Exarchia.⁵ Athenian police tried to calm tensions and intensified their crackdown on the narcotics trade in the neighborhood. These efforts culminated in a series of raids against dealers’ safe houses and a drugs laboratory in mid-July 2016.⁶