EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis). This detailed account describes the rise of a significant mafia network in Chania, Crete, with deep connections to both local authorities and influential figures, including members of the Mitsotakis family. The mafia thrived through illicit activities such as drug and arms trafficking, exploiting ties with the church, police, military, and political elites. A key figure in this network, Matthaios Astropalitis, has longstanding links to the Mitsotakis family, including relationships with prominent figures such as the former abbot of the Monastery of Agia Triada, Damaskinos, who is now facing charges for extortion, abuse, and corruption. This investigation uncovered shocking interactions between high-ranking church members, mafia figures, and politicians, with suspicions about child abuse and bribery running through the case.
The investigation highlights the systemic corruption within Crete’s political and ecclesiastical institutions. Matthaios Astropalitis allegedly used his political connections to exert influence over both local governance and legal decisions, while also engaging in criminal acts involving extortion and manipulation of church property. The family of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is implicated in the controversy, with various members having maintained ties with Astropalitis and other criminals over the years. This case raises serious concerns about the influence of mafia networks on Greek politics and the ongoing cover-up by both local and national authorities.
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Mitsotakis and the Most Honorable Godfathers
The individuals with whom the Mitsotakis family associated are accused of felonies.
After the embrace between mafia members in Crete and New Democracy party bosses of the Mitsotakis system—”Frapedes” and “Butchers” posing happily even next to Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself—ministers from the other side, as revealed in recent months, were competing over the drained OPEKEPE, now more light is being shed on yet another long-standing (this time exclusively Cretan) mafia, covered (like the OPEKEPE scandal) by a years-long code of silence.
The mafia survived thanks to relationships between extortionists, drug dealers, and other common criminals with church officials, the police, the army, local authorities, and influential political figures, who made sure to advertise the leaders of the large network.
Many of the key figures in this new, large, and foul criminal case are traditionally connected with the Mitsotakis family or exploit favors behind which powerful political interests are hidden. After all, all of this happens in Chania, the prime minister’s hometown.
It all started when findings from a months-long investigation by the Hellenic Police into a network of drug dealers and arms traffickers that had been exploiting Chania uncovered unexpected evidence regarding two people collaborating with the network: the Chania brothers, Astropalitis. Authorities formed a second case against the activities of the brothers, showing that they had infiltrated the Inner Circle of the Autonomous Church of Crete by extorting and offering favors. As a result, former abbot of the Monastery of Agia Triada, Dorian Bishop Damaskinos (known as Nikolaos Lionakis), is now facing charges of instigating extortion, instigating dangerous bodily harm, and embezzlement. A former archimandrite, previously a candidate for Metropolitan of Kydonia and Apokoronas (of the Chania Metropolis), Archimandrite Melchisedek (known as Panagiotis Ampelikakis), is negotiating and asking for political “intervention” from the criminals.
Chania was buzzing about Damaskinos
If one follows the unfolding history of the case, they will see that the Mitsotakis family (Kyriakos himself, his wife Mareva, and other family members), as well as the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni years ago, were in regular contact with the now-accused abbot of the Monastery of Agia Triada (the local community was already buzzing about him in 2020). Simultaneously, a year ago, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Dora Bakoyannis accepted a personal invitation from Archimandrite Melchisedek (a claimant for the Chania Metropolis) to the sacred church where he serves. A few months later, institutional interventions began for control over the succession in the metropolis.
To begin with: in March 2025, prosecutor orders were issued for the legal interception of the involved parties’ phones, and by July, they had already caught some “big fish.” Based on the case’s referral document, on July 22, the proto-synkellos of the Kydonia and Apokoronas Metropolis, Archimandrite Nikiforos (known as Nikitas Ikosidekas), testified in the pre-investigation. Ikosidekas is also the treasurer of the current administration of the Monastery of Agia Triada. “In 2017,” he reveals, “the responsible ecclesiastical bodies of the Monastery of Agia Triada noticed the illegal occupation of part of the monastery’s land by the Astropalitis brothers, Matthaios and Konstantinos, and another entrepreneur.” This involved a 175-hectare prime piece of land, located near the site where the movie “Zorba the Greek” was filmed and north of the American base of Souda.
Although the monastery’s administration noticed the land grab back then, they did nothing about it, and eventually, in early 2022, the land was sold for 1.5 million euros by Matthaios Astropalitis to the Israeli company “Zorbas 1 Real Estate Investments Ltd.” Astropalitis signed the deal with the Israeli Oded Gold, who paid via a Czech bank, while the head of the purchasing company is Asaf Gold, a name also associated with the now-defunct property management company Glasgow 1 Limited in Glasgow.
In 2019, Ikosidekas continues in his sworn testimony, “it was decided by the appropriate ecclesiastical bodies to file a lawsuit against the Astropalitis brothers.” But that year, Bishop Damaskinos (Nikos Lionakis) was appointed as abbot of the monastery, and the issue was frozen. As revealed in the brothers’ conversations in the case file, Lionakis had been forced to sign two years earlier, extorted by the brothers with video footage—likely of an intimate nature—a declaration that the seized land was “not part of the Church’s real estate.”
Lionakis was accused of sexual misconduct
As revealed by the police referral, the extorting Astropalitis brothers appear to have had electronic files with “images or/and sounds with unknown content” involving Bishop Damaskinos, which “depicted or referred to acts of his that are both criminal and ethically reprehensible.” The brothers, trying to extort another businessman in Chania, claimed—based on conversations recorded in the case—that a local journalist possessed compromising footage (of the bishop). The referral even noted that “further investigation is needed… because allegations are made about indecent acts against minors.”
The church eventually removed Bishop Damaskinos in November 2023. In a conversation with his brother, Matthaios Astropalitis even boasted that the church had conducted an investigation and knew about the “dirty deeds.” Specifically, he said, “They examined him… they saw that he hadn’t taken money… but they saw that he had done other dirty work… and so they said he has no relation to us.”
The plot thickens with the church’s political interference, revelations about extortion, and connections to the political elite, especially surrounding the controversial figure of Melchisedek and the Mitsotakis family’s involvement in church affairs, ultimately drawing a connection to broader systemic corruption across local and national politics.
