The case file on the family criminal organization that extorted and beat farmers in Vorizia and Amari, Crete, describes blackmail, arson, violence, and illegal enrichment at the expense of dozens of people who were driven off their properties.

What preceded were the desperate pleas of dozens of citizens from the Amari area, who even traveled to Chania and the General Police Directorate of Crete asking the police for help and protection.

The arrests were carried out simultaneously in Kallithea, at a clinic where the 43-year-old main suspect was hospitalized, and in Vorizia, where his two nephews, aged 39 and 44, were handcuffed. Among those arrested were also their wives, who together with another individual were charged with livestock theft.

Since 2021

Residents of the Amari area, as reported by neakriti.gr, had been living through a real nightmare since 2021, with the accused driving them from their homes and fields, which they then seized and declared in their own livestock registrations in order to illegally collect subsidies from OPEKEPE.

Anyone who reacted became the target of intimidation and threats against their own life and the lives of their family members. According to the case file, they set cars on fire, tore down field fences, and flattened olive and vineyard cultivations so they could later present the land as leased plots and collect subsidies for herds they never actually possessed.

The arrested individuals, together with others included in the case file, are accused of extorting at least 40 landowners from 2021 until today, as well as of setting fire to a 4×4 vehicle in May 2025 as an act of retaliation.

How the criminal organization operated, collecting thousands of euros for non-existent sheep

They chopped down 400 vine trunks and 134 olive trees

In another incident that took place in May 2022, a local resident found his vineyard, located in the Plaka Fourfoura area of Amari, completely butchered. The perpetrators used electric shears to chop down 400 vine trunks. This happened because he had refused to lease them a field and had also reported them to the police for agricultural damage. The owner of an olive grove was confronted with a similarly horrific scene. He found all 134 of his olive trees cut flush to the ground.

A woman originally from the area also testified that as soon as her father passed away, the accused seized both his fields and his sheepfold, declaring them as their own even to the tax authorities in order to claim them through adverse possession.

The damage caused to the crops of Amari residents is estimated to exceed €200,000, while the money they illegally collected from OPEKEPE exceeds half a million euros.

From the financial investigation and cross-checks conducted, members of the group, along with relatives and even friends, had submitted false declarations to the Integrated Administration and Control System (OSDE) for livestock they did not possess.

They did not even own half of the goats and sheep they declared, while even those counted in their sheepfolds did not bear ear tags and are considered stolen livestock. The total amount allegedly collected from European Union funds between 2021 and 2025 amounts to no less than €586,498.73.

How they justified the extremely expensive 4x4s

In their village, the accused claimed that the money they were throwing around on the extremely expensive 4×4 vehicles they drove came from young farmers’ programs in which they had participated.