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Drug trafficking in Romania has grown, while traffickers are developing new methods of distribution, and the age of consumers has dropped to 10-11 years.
"In 2023, the Romanian authorities increased the penalties for drug traffickers from 2-7 years to 3-10 years, currently a draft law is on the agenda of the Legislature that provides for the increase of prison sentences for drug users as well," according to a presentation of the results of the activities carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) structures in 2023 to prevent and combat criminality and protect citizens, Agerpres reports.
The investigators issued 772 indictments, targeting 2,183 crimes, with 1,388 defendants, of which 588 were detained or arrested.
570 kg of drugs, over 3.2 tonnes of precursors, approximately 650 kg of green mass from the drug category and over 1.5 million tablets were removed from the market, as a result of the operative actions carried out by the police together with DIICOT prosecutors.
From June to August 2023, at the national level, 211 operative actions were carried out, 16 organized criminal groups were destroyed, 472 people were sent to court, 2,942 criminal acts were registered, activities were carried out in 5,023 delegation ordinances issued by DIICOT prosecutors, the source says. In the same period, 210 kg of drugs were removed from the market and approximately 20 illegal drug cultures were discovered and terminated.
At the level of the Romanian Police, on the line of combating drug trafficking and illicit consumption, 8,899 criminal files were received, accompanied by delegation ordinances, of which 3,177 files (35.7pct) in the June-August period.
The operative actions from June to August led to the identification and destruction of approximately 45pct of the criminal groups dismantled this year and led to the removal from the market of approximately 40pct of the quantity of risk and high-risk drugs, respectively 80pct of the tablets of risk and high risk from the total values related to the current year.
At the level of the National Anti-Drug Agency (ANA), almost 9,000 drug use prevention activities were carried out, with around 400,000 beneficiaries, of which 5,884 - in the pre-university school environment, with 169,242 beneficiaries (159,719 students and 9,523 teachers), 64 - in the school environment university, with 2,322 beneficiaries, 612 - in the family, with 9,762 beneficiaries and 2,409 - in the community, with 215,669 beneficiaries.
ANA carried out 12 projects, informative-preventive campaigns, eight prevention projects in the school environment, related to the 2022-2023 school year, two national prevention projects in the family environment, a national campaign and a prevention project regarding road safety and addictive behavior.
"Assistance services provided to drug users: 3,996 integrated medical, psychological and social assessments, 6,743 medical consultations, 5,402 individual (psychological and social) counseling sessions, 809 group (psychological and social) counseling sessions and 6,087 drug management sessions case," the MAI informs.
