Authorities in Athens dismantled a criminal organization extorting business owners in the city’s center to avoid administrative fines and inspections.
Police have arrested 14 people, including nine public officials and members of the municipality police.
The suspects face multiple charges, including forming a criminal organization, extortion, and bribery.
It is estimated that the gang operated since January 2023, and it annual profits exceeded 700,000 euros.
They primarily extorted hotels and restaurants but also kiosk in Athens by offering protection to avoid administrative fines, conducting targeted inspections and then blackmailing businesses to prevent future inspections or fines.
According to Police, the members of the organization received sums of money ranging from 6,000 to 16,000 euros per year from shops of health interest (restaurants etc), 1,500 per year from kiosks, while cases were also identified where they received fees from 1,000 to 35,000 euros for an illegal action or failure.
Screening the suspects mobile phones, police reportedly found also one by a businessman who complained that he had paid to the gang 12,000 euros this year and 16,000 the previous year, yet he was fined by authorities. “Is this the protection we get by paying so much money?” he wrote in a sms.
Members of the organization included a head of a municipal authority and employees from other public services in the Attica region.
The blackmailing ring was uncovered after authorities investigated a complaint about a private individual, a 43-year-old woman who is allegedly also the leader of the gang, collaborating with municipal employees to extort business owners.
Athens Municipal Authority announced that all involved employees are immediately suspended.
I know it’s not possible, but their names should be published by the press.
This kind of act is shameful to the current government. I have the impression that these parasites, who most certainly were appointed not on merit but on party basis, believe that they are untouchable. Life in prison for them.
I wonder how much of this goes on in Athens… I bet it is more common than people think.