Three Maniots arrested for stealing and killing livestock

On March 3, 2022, three men aged 17, 19 and 28 were arrested in the local community of the municipality of East Mani (Laconia) for crimes of theft and murder of livestock, violation of the law on weapons and smuggling, the publication reports spartanews.

To understand the situation, it is worth plunging into history a little. The population of the rural outback in Laconia and Mani, where once the legendary Sparta was located, and a thousand years later the no less legendary principality of the robbers of Mani, has always been in a special account in Greece.

This is how the Maniots looked like in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Maniots are described as descendants of the ancient Dorian population of the Peloponnese and as such the ancient Spartans (The direct descendants of which the modern Maniots consider themselves to be). The terrain there is mountainous and difficult to access (until recently, many of Mani’s villages could only be reached by sea), and the local name “Mani” is believed to have originally meant “dry” or “barren”. The name “Maniot” is derived from the word “Mani”. In the early modern era, the Maniots had a reputation for being fierce and proud independent warriors who practiced piracy and brutal blood feud.

The recent detention of 3 men fits in well with the old traditions Maniotsbut we are more familiar with westerns that tell about the events of the south of the USA in the middle and late 19th century.

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On March 3, 2022, three citizens were detained in the local community of the municipality of East Mani (Laconia), against whom a criminal case was initiated. According to the investigation carried out by the Gythio Police Department, it turned out that the above persons were engaged in the illegal sale of meat in the wider territory of the East Mani municipality.

As part of an organized police operation carried out by the Gifio Department in cooperation with the Crime Prevention and Enforcement Units (OPKE) of Laconia and the Areopolis Police Department, the above criminals were found riding in a car and transporting parts of a slaughtered animal weighing 125.5 kg in bags, which, as it turned out to be a cow and had been killed a few hours earlier for the purpose of further selling its meat.

As a result of the preliminary investigation, it was established that in the period from February 14, 2022 to February 23, 2022, these persons committed at least 2 more murders of cattle taken from a farm that did not belong to them.

As a result of searches in the houses of the detainees, the following were found and confiscated:

• shotgun,
• electric saw,
• 2 hand saws,
• 4 knives
• 2 scales,
• 3 hooks for meat,
• 79 cartridges of different types and calibers,
• 11 packs of tobacco with a total mass of 3.582 kg, which did not have an excise tax tape.

In the same case, a 45-year-old Albanian citizen, the mother of a 17-year-old teenager, was arrested, accused of neglecting her son’s supervision, and the car was confiscated as a means of committing criminal acts.

The detainees were taken to the prosecutor of first instance Gythio, the police investigation and pre-investigation work is being carried out by the Gythio Police Department.

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