Organized crime squad officers have arrested a total 39 people in Crete and northern Greece on suspicion of participation in widespread fraud involving European Union farm subsidies.
A total 116 people are named in the investigation into fraud in Crete and Macedonia, and are expected to be summoned to testify before the Athens branch of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The case, widely known as the OPEKEPE scandal after the name of the now-defunct state agency for allocating EU farm subsidies, has gripped Greece for months and caused considerable embarrassment to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservative government.
The new suspects are believed to have fraudulently declared ownership or use of farmland or grazing pastures whose true owners or tenants had not declared them on an online platform for EU subsidies. As a result, they were able to receive subsidies for fictional farming activities.
In Crete, ring members allegedly fraudulently cashed €2.7 million in undeserved subsidies between 2019-2024, and another €4.5 million in Macedonia.
Out of the 39 detained suspects, 17 were arrested in Thessaloniki, Serres and Kilkis, 20 in Rethymno, Iraklio and Lasithi on Crete and another two in the Greater Athens region.
Two of the people arrested over the Cretan side of the scam are the suspected ring-leaders, two brothers from Rethymno – one of whom was taken into custody at Athens International Airport on his return from a business trip.
