Plan to crack down on crime gangs, Rouvikonas
The Greek Police is planing a coordinated crackdown on organized crime rackets as the government drafts legislation aimed at punishing members of the anarchist group Rouvikonas, who have been carrying out acts of vandalism with relative impunity for years.
Authorities are planning to smash burglary and robbery rackets operating in Attica and beyond. But, with some 1,000 suspected racket members, it will be taxing. Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis has ordered the transfer of 500 police officers from desk jobs to the motorcycle-riding DIAS unit.
Meanwhile, authorities are to tweak a new penal code so that members of Rouvikonas would be indicted to trial after acts of vandalism directly, without the need for victims to first take legal action; another reform foresees all members of the group being charged over an offense that Rouvikonas claims responsibility for.
