ATHENS, May 25 (Reuters) - Greek police arrested 20 people on the island of Crete on Monday, saying they had dismantled a criminal gang suspected of defrauding the European Union of agricultural subsidies - the latest case in a growing scandal that has shaken the government.
Among the group’s suspected leaders were two accountants and state employees who assisted farmers with submitting applications to receive EU farm funds based on false declarations of farm land, police officials said.
Since starting to operate in 2019, the network’s illegal revenue topped €3 million ($3.49 million), police said in a statement.
Monday’s arrests are the latest in a series of local cases linked to a wider probe by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office - an independent EU office - into alleged crimes in Greece against the bloc’s financial interests.
Last year, European prosecutors charged dozens of Greek stock-breeders with faking ownership of grazing land to claim millions of euros in EU subsidies, with the alleged help of state employees and conservative politicians.
The scandal has made political waves in Greece, prompting parliamentary probes - which were inconclusive - as well as ministers’ resignations and calls for early elections by opposition parties.
At the request of the European chief prosecutor, parliament voted in April to lift the parliamentary immunity of 13 lawmakers from the ruling New Democracy party, so they can be investigated over their suspected role in separate cases.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged EU prosecutors to decide swiftly whether to indict the lawmakers, as he seeks to stem the political fallout from the probe before the next parliamentary election due by spring 2027.
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(Reporting by Yannis Souliotis; Writing by Renee Maltezou;Editing by Helen Popper)
