How criminal organizations siphoned off agricultural subsidies – More than 1,100 defendants

Under the codename “Operation Harvest”, the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime – known as the “Greek FBI” – has exposed and struck at the long-standing activity of organized crime in the field of OPEKEPE subsidies. More specifically, a journalistic analysis of Hellenic Police data shows that, over the past six months, authorities have dismantled five criminal groups operating from Crete to northern Greece, revealing the deep and long-term involvement of organized mafia networks – with no connection to the farming world – in the illegal draining of subsidies from OPEKEPE.

The files of the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime show, on the one hand, that the activity of organized crime dates back at least to 2018 – another indication of the chronic problems in the agricultural subsidies system – and, on the other, they overturn the prevailing perception that the frauds were committed mainly by farmers and livestock breeders with political connections.

“Harvest” with more than 1,000 defendants

The operations carried out by the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime have been given the codename “Harvest”. They began on the orders of the current political leadership long before the OPEKEPE case came to public attention – and the figures are striking.

The number of defendants allegedly involved in the five cases solved by the “Greek FBI” has reached 1,151. To date, more than 90 people have been arrested. At least 17 of them have been remanded in custody, while around 40 were initially detained and later released under restrictive conditions. The damage caused by the activity of the five criminal groups has not yet been determined with absolute precision, as investigations are still ongoing, but it is estimated to exceed €17 million.

“We are not talking here about isolated ‘small’ cases. Those obviously exist too, and dozens of embezzlers have already been convicted by the courts, or are awaiting trial,” said a government source familiar with the wider effort to clean up the mechanism for granting agricultural aid, referring to the tens of millions of euros that have been frozen in the context of various investigations across Greece.

“In these five cases, however,” the same source continued, “we see organized groups with distinct roles, hierarchy and activity spanning several years. This is a very different and significant aspect of the OPEKEPE case, one that is generally not known to the wider public.”

The modi operandi

The examination of the five major cases points to common methods of operation. The criminal groups would identify land parcels that carried subsidy rights for crops and grazing land but had not been declared to OPEKEPE by other applicants. In many cases, the land belonged to unsuspecting citizens, deceased individuals or even the state.

Senior members of each criminal organization – or members with accounting knowledge – would then register the land parcels in the property declarations of associates or relatives, who appeared falsely as owners or lessors. Using these forged ownership documents, subsidy applications were submitted. The entries for the land parcels in the E9 property tax records of the supposed owners were deleted shortly afterwards, in an attempt to erase the traces of the fraud.

Police officers also found that perpetrators who appeared as owners of grazing land made sure to “inflate” the size of their livestock herds, seeking even greater benefits.

In two cases, the criminal groups were supported by officials at Declaration Reception Centers, which operate as intermediaries between producers and OPEKEPE. This allowed the perpetrators either to gain access to OPEKEPE mapping data and more easily identify undeclared land parcels, or to receive favorable treatment when registering their applications.

One of the criminal groups operated differently: it set up two companies that trafficked in fictitious sales documents and forged seed certification labels. The illegal profits came when associates of the two businesses submitted applications to OPEKEPE, attaching the irregular invoices as “proof” of their alleged “activity”.

The broad geographical spread of the defendants is also striking, reflecting the extent to which organized crime had penetrated the subsidy system for the primary sector.

The first organization dismantled – leading to charges against more than 40 people – was active in Crete and Samos. The second, broken up in early April and involving 290 people, operated in Kilkis and other parts of northern Greece.

Then, in May alone, the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime uncovered the activity of one group operating across several areas of Crete and two more groups based in Macedonia, whose “tentacles” reached Crete, Athens, Santorini and Epirus. One of these groups, believed to have been active since at least 2018, involves 404 defendants.

A systematic crackdown

Separate information also shows the emphasis that the Greek justice system and police have placed for years on combating the illegal extraction of agricultural subsidies.

Indicatively, according to information, 70 checks have been ordered in total into possible irregularities in OPEKEPE subsidies, concerning both individuals and legal entities, with the first actions dating back to 2010.

“Each investigation requires a great deal of time, the collection of evidence, and its thorough evaluation and cross-checking. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but it is always important to see an effort bearing fruit,” said a senior official of the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, who insisted on anonymity.

“What matters is that we now have measurable results, and with each case we also understand better how all these groups were structured and how they operated,” the official added.

Beyond the broad investigation ordered by the prosecutor supervising the “Greek FBI”, there are both completed and ongoing investigations ordered by first-instance prosecutors as well as by delegated representatives of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.