Waiters, DJs, and office employees — but certainly not farmers — were members of the network that, through false declarations to OPEKEPE, collected millions of euros in subsidies.

According to reports, while police have so far arrested 37 people, the number of those involved is much higher. The operation took place in Giannitsa, Attica, Crete, Thessaloniki, Edessa, and Ioannina, with two men identified as the main suspects. The first is a 38-year-old from Giannitsa who claimed to be a farmer and was responsible for finding people and land plots that had not been declared, in order to “make use” of them accordingly.

The second is a 36-year-old from Crete who worked at a Documentation Reception Center — a private business.

Among the defendants are also 11 individuals who acted both as lessors and lessees. They accessed the system to identify undeclared agricultural parcels, which they then fraudulently declared under someone else’s name and collected the subsidies. In other cases, they falsely claimed that someone owned farmland and created fake lease agreements under third parties’ names, who then collected the payments.

They operated between 2018 and 2022

The operation by members of Greece’s so-called “FBI” (the Financial Police) had begun long ago and uncovered individuals already under investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. The investigation revealed that the network operated from 2018 to 2022, managing to embezzle millions of euros, with initial estimates indicating at least €5 million.

Authorities clarified that these individuals are not among the 1,036 tax identification numbers (AFMs) already found to have illegally received €22.7 million.

The arrested individuals will be transferred to Athens on Thursday, where they will appear before the European Prosecutor.