File photo.
Three men have been arrested by the police’s organized crime unit in a village in Crete as part of an ongoing probe into alleged fraud related to European Union farm subsidies.
The suspects, an uncle and two nephews, were detained in a raid in the village of Vorizia, near Crete’s capital Iraklio. The men allegedly had formed a criminal group which encroached on other people’s land by force, and use it to collect European subsidies through OPEKEPE, the disgraced state agency at the enter of the probe.
Their alleged criminal activity began in 2021, with authorities estimating they have embezzled €580,000, while the damage they have caused to the real owners of the plots is estimated to around €200,000.
The small village was in the news last November after a feud-related shooting left two people dead and several others injured.
