ATHENS – 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 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.

That came after a report on the structure and operation of Greece’s powerful criminal groups, a 100-page document prepared by security services and given to Supreme Court prosecutor Vassilis Pliotas by Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, said Kathimerini.

What sparked it now seems to be the still unsolved gunning down of investigative journalist Giorgos Karaivaz outside his Athens home, shot dead by a man on the back of a two-person motorcycle, who then got off and delivered two final bullets to the head to then finish him off.

The report, the paper said, identifies at least 20 protection rackets, three in Attica, but also in Patra, Agrinio, Zakynthos, Kalamata and the popular tourist island of Mykonos, notorious for tax evasion and flouting the law.