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Marius Lazar, leader of the Bucharest Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC), and New Zealanders Michael Matthews Murray and Marc Patrick Johnson were remanded in custody for 30 days following a decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, in a cocaine trafficking case probed by the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism - DIICOT in cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as reported by AGERPRES.
According to the court's decision, the three were put under arrest in order to be handed over to the US judicial authorities, for the enforcement of the arrest warrant issued on November 4 by a magistrate of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal will discuss the extradition request made by the US authorities on December 16.
The two New Zealanders and the HAMC Bucharest leader were caught on Thursday by DIICOT prosecutors following a large-scale operation to dismantle an international group of cocaine traffickers.
According to DIICOT, the US authorities have sent a request for international legal assistance in criminal matters made by the US Department of Justice, seeking the support of DIICOT prosecutors with an investigation into an organized criminal ring responsible for obtaining significant amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine in the US and other countries and the distribution of the drugs in the EU and New Zealand.
The ring also carried out money laundering activities.
The members of the ring obtained and distributed drugs for the benefit of several known organized crime groups operating in the US, the EU and New Zealand.
The leaders of the group, detained in New Zealand, negotiated through intermediaries the purchase of cocaine and methamphetamine for one of the groups, with the negotiations and transactions taking place in Romania.
During the negotiations, the Romanian representatives of the group asked the suppliers to provide them a certain amount of drugs and discussed the possibility of killing a member of a rival group.
