 In April 1967, shortly after seizing power in a coup, junta leader George Papadopoulos appointed Dimitrios Ioannides chief of the ESA, which gradually had been transformed into an internal security army.When Papadopoulos declared Martial law after the 1967 coup, he increased the power of the ESA even further by making it the junta's chief arm of law and order as well as repression.Under Ioannides, ESA rose to a force of more than 20,000 men.