The Crete mafia scandal has dominated Greek headlines this week, with case files revealing shocking details about a sprawling criminal organisation active in Chania and Rethymno.
According to investigators, the group operated with a strict hierarchy and extended its influence across drug and weapons trafficking, extortion, money laundering, and other serious crimes.
One of the most sensational revelations involves the blackmail of an archimandrite with a compromising video. A second case file sent to court links members of the same network to the exploitation of monastic property and the misappropriation of monastery assets. Six people are implicated, with evidence showing that the Crete mafia scandal even reached as far as church appointments.
Among the accused is the archimandrite himself, who was first blackmailed and later recruited into the organisation. He is alleged to have ordered the beating of an individual and to have cooperated with the mafia in plans to profit from religious relics.
Case material records a conversation in which members of the network asked him to provide holy relics for a procession that would bring “significant financial benefit.” When they questioned whether the relics were genuine, he reportedly replied: “They are authentic. I brought them from Cyprus.”
Speaking on SKAI’s Power Talk programme, it was further revealed that the priest claimed to have received a large quantity of relics from an abbot in Cyprus, who “had them in abundance.”
The Crete mafia scandal has shocked public opinion, intertwining organised crime, ecclesiastical corruption, and a cross-border Cyprus connection.
Also read: Leader of “donut mafia” in Halkidiki jailed for 16 years
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