Greek authorities are preparing a new wave of arrests in what is shaping up to be one of the country’s most significant fraud cases involving European Union agricultural subsidies, underscoring persistent weaknesses in the bloc’s oversight of farm funding. The investigation, already extensive in scope, has revealed how millions of euros intended to support legitimate farmers were siphoned off through systematic deception, forged claims, and abuse of bureaucratic loopholes.

Speaking on December 15, Greece’s Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, confirmed that investigators have taken 15 suspects into custody in the latest phase of the probe and are moving toward additional arrests. Authorities have so far seized approximately €33 million ($34.7 million) in illegally obtained subsidies, a figure that highlights both the scale of the alleged scheme and the vulnerability of EU agricultural programs to organized fraud.

Among those arrested are high-profile figures within Greece’s agricultural sector, including an agricultural union official and the president of a farming cooperative in Archanes, located in Crete’s Iraklio region. Police have identified the cooperative president as the alleged ringleader of the operation, raising serious questions about the role of trusted intermediaries in facilitating large-scale abuse of public funds. The involvement of individuals occupying positions of authority within the farming community has........

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