Authorities on the island of Mykonos arrested five more people on Wednesday for illegal construction workthat have changed the beaches and shores of the island.
The arrests reportedly followed a complaint by a resident of the Ornos district that construction was being carried out in front of another hotel without a permit.
Referring to the information of the Greek police, the website newsit.gr reports that a 23-year-old Pakistani man and 4 young Albanian workers were detained in the area, who were working on the orders of a 60-year-old US citizen wanted by the police.
According to preliminary information, the US citizen is also wanted for violation of the Immigration and Integration Code, as he does not have the necessary documents for a legal stay in Greece, so he probably ordered illegal work and was absent from the scene. It is noted that one of the arrested Albanians did not have the necessary documents for a legal stay in Greece. Their illegal operations took place in front of another hotel and “changed the topography of Mykonos”.
Monday power like reportedarrested a 71-year-old businessman for illegal construction his hotel near Loulos Beach on the southeast coast of the island.
Also arrested were four foreigners and a Greek whom he had hired to actually carry out work for which no proper license had been issued.
The businessman faces additional responsibility for employing one of the foreign nationals – a 42-year-old Albanian – despite the fact that he did not have a residence permit or social security.
The arrests, which took place on Monday, are part of an ongoing crackdown following the revelation of rampant illegal construction in the Cyclades island. The so-called “Operation Mykonos” to combat urban planning violations was launched after a brutal beating of an archaeologist Mykonos in March
53 year old Manolis Psarros, an employee of the State Archaeological Service, was beaten by unknown persons in Athens and left unconscious in the street to bleed to death. The reason for the attack on the archaeologist was that he refused to give permission to build in the archaeological zone.
Psarros has dealt with numerous cases involving alleged violations in Mykonos and has been called as a witness in trials of these cases in the past.
It is worth noting that after the start of the construction boom on the island in the early 2000s, prices for building plots increased hundreds of times. For example: a plot of 150 m2, which in the 90s cost up to 1 million drachmas (about 3,000 euros), now costs at least a million, but already euros. At the same time, in the historical part of the island forbidden construction without archaeological expertise, which can put an end to any building if archaeological objects are found in the process of excavation.
Naturally, such a level of profit attracted the attention of the mafia and other criminal structures that have been working closely on the Wind Island for the past decades.
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