Operation Harvest: how subsidies were siphoned out of OPECPE

Five major schemes for theft of agricultural subsidies have been uncovered in Greece through OPECPEPE. There are 1,151 defendants in the case, damages exceed 17 million euros.

Under the code name “Operation Harvest” Department for Combating Organized Crime over the past six months, has uncovered five large criminal organizations involved in the systematic theft of agricultural subsidies through ΟΠΕΚΕΠΕ.

According to the data presented, five cases involve a total of 1,151 accused. More 90 people detained, at least 17 have already been found subject to pre-trial detention.

Damage to Greek state And European Union is valued at more than 17 million euroswhile the investigation continues.

Not farmers, but organized schemes

As follows from the materials ΔΑΟΕwe were not talking about real farmers who made mistakes in documents, but about organized groups that used the subsidy system as a source of income.

According to the investigation, these structures operated for at least 2018had distributed roles, a hierarchy and a proven methodology for receiving illegal payments.

Common working methods included:

• search for undeclared agricultural plots;
• use of lands that belonged to the deceased, private individuals or the state;
• introduction of fictitious property rights into Ε9 relatives or accomplices;
• submitting false applications for subsidies;
• inflating the number of animals to obtain large payments;
• using access to maps and data through separate Κέντρα Υποδοχής Δηλώσεων (ΚΥΔ, declaration acceptance centers);
• creation of companies to issue fictitious documents on the sale of seeds and certificates.

Geography and scale

Five organizations operated in different parts of the country. One of them, according to investigators, worked with at least 2018 and includes 404 accused.

High-ranking employee ΔΑΟΕ noted that investigators still have a lot of work to do, but each new operation helps to better understand how these schemes functioned.

“We still have a lot of work to do, but it is important to see that the efforts are yielding results. With each case, we better understand how these groups worked.”– said a representative of the department.

In parallel with the investigations ΔΑΟΕ dozens of inspections were ordered by the prosecutor’s office, European Prosecutor’s Office and prosecutors of first instance. Since 2010, more than 70 major inspections.

Editorial comment

Scandal around OPECPEPE has long ceased to be just a story about “incorrect declarations.” If there are five cases 1,151 accusedand the damage is measured in tens of millions of euros, this is no longer a failure of the system, but the system itself, which someone has been using as a feeding trough for years.

What is especially cynical is that these schemes had nothing to do with real agriculture. While real farmers are struggling with prices for fuel, electricity, feed, bureaucracy and the emptying of the countryside, organized groups found other people’s plots, created fictitious rights, inflated the number of livestock and siphoned off money intended to support the agricultural sector.

That is, the state and EU it seemed that funds were allocated to support production, but part of this money did not go to the field, not to the farm or to the village, but into the pockets of people who learned to work not with the land, but with holes in the system.

A separate question is how such schemes could exist for years. When a criminal organization has been operating since 2018, it uses documents, cards, declarations and, in some cases, access through ΚΥΔit’s hard to believe that the problem was only the dexterity of the scammers. This inevitably raises questions about political cover-up, inaction, clientelism and the state’s chronic inability to control its own money distribution mechanisms.

That’s why “Operation Harvest” is important not only as a police success. It shows how deeply rotten the system of distribution of agricultural subsidies is and how easily aid intended for rural Greece could turn into source of income for criminal groups.

Conclusion: If the authorities really want to clean up the system, arrests alone will not be enough. It is necessary not only to catch those who filed a fictitious declaration, but also to answer the main question: who allowed these schemes to exist for years and why real farmers remained in line while organized groups harvested government and European money.

The question, as they say, is rhetorical…

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