ATHENS – Seeing cases of organized crime leaders blatantly conducting attacks and killings, Greece is trying to coordinate investigations between agencies, including immediately forwarding case files from the police to the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s office.

That came on order of the prosecutor, Vassilis Pliotas, the scheme designed to let his office determine how it should be handled and at what priority level to determine if it involves Greece’s underworld, said Kathimerini.

That’s also aimed at making sure top cases don’t get lost in the shuffle as Greek courts face backlogs that can take years to get to trial, the New Democracy government – who took office on a platform including a tough law-and-order stance – trying to get control of mobsters.

Pliotas, with experience in the field, moved to reorganize the handling of the organized crime investigations after getting a report from Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis with a list of names of people involved in mob activities and crimes over the last decade, the paper said, motivated by a rise in organized crime activities. 

After a spate of assassinations between rival organized crime gangs – days after Greek police said they would mobilize against them – a task force will be set up to try to get figure out what the mobsters are doing before they do it.

That's being put together by the Citizens’ Protection Ministry that will unify the Attica  Security Directorate divisions responsible for organized crime, homicide and narcotics, said Kathimerini.

A key element will be including the Management and Information Analysis Directorate, which is essentially an intelligence unit aimed at gathering information on what mob leaders are planning.

With gang hits spinning out of control, victims shot dead in drive-by gundowns, the scenes of violence have officials worried, the task force also due to combine its work with other divisions.

The proposal was discussed at a meeting with police officials, led by Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, the newspaper reporting that he wants to change the structure and operation of the Attica Security Directorate although no specific details were given how it would work.

Code named Mani Pulite – an Italian anti-corruption 1990s operation meaning “Clean Hands” – Greek anti-mob teams are going to target organized crime in the country, it was earlier said.