Former border police officer sent to court over alleged migrant smuggling abetting

Five people, including a former policeman of the Nadlac customs service, have been sent to court by Department for Investigation of Organised Crime and Terror (DIICOT) prosecutors in a case in which they are accused of having aided and abetted more than 140 migrants cross the border illegally.

According to a DIICOT press statement released on Monday, under an indictment dated July 27, the DIICOT prosecutors ordered five persons to court, four under judicial control and one under house arrest, over forming an organised criminal group, migrant smuggling, taking bribes and giving bribes.

The prosecutors note that four of those under investigation allegedly had the role of ensuring the protection of shipments, including by winning over through corruption a police officer of the Nadlac II border checkpoint and securing the logistics for the crime (identification and rental of locations for the transfer and grouping of migrants on Romanian soil, recruiting drivers willing to carry out the shipment, obtaining large vehicles and the necessary papers).

Regarding the crime of migrant smuggling, the investigators say that the four were charged with having aided to carry out two shipments involving the fraudulent crossing of the Romanian state border by 141 migrants - adults and minors of various ethnic backgrounds, including Iraqis, Syrians, Afghans and Pakistanis.

As regards the fifth person sent to court, DIICOT says that as a border police officer he would have abetted this organised criminal group by ensuring the protection of shipments by minimising detection risks, and making it more difficult to prosecute the persons involved. Also, he would have submitted the duty shifts and the related intervals when the fraudulent shipments could pass through the Nadlac II checkpoint without being properly checked.

At the same time, DIICOT says that between March and April 2017, the police officer in charge with checking the flows of migrants would have accepted the promise of receiving money (10,000 euros for each such fraudulent shipment) and received 8,500 euros from the members of the organised criminal group in order to ensure the passage of fraudulent transiting of groups of migrants at the Nadlac II border checkpoint out of Romania by failing to properly conduct the checks.

The case has been submitted to the Timis Courthouse for a resolution. AGERPRES