Premium
Police officers from the Suceava Organized Crime Brigade (BCCO), together with the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) Suceava prosecutors, on Monday conducted 83 searches at homes and buildings owned or used by several individuals, as well as at the headquarters and workplaces of some legal entities in the counties of Suceava, Bihor, Maramures, Bistrita-Nasaud, Mehedinti and Gorj, told Agerpres.
Investigations are being carried out regarding the possession outside the tax warehouse or the sale on Romanian territory of cigarettes over the legal limit, migrant trafficking, corruption offences, possession of dangerous drugs for personal use, as well as offences against traffic safety on public roads.
"In this case, it was held that, starting with November 2021, several Romanian citizens created an organized criminal ring, which purpose is to traffic cigarettes of non-EU origin, while avoiding the tax warehouse, and to sell them on the Romanian territory without being marked or while being improperly marked, which activities are thought to mostly take place in the counties of Bihor, Suceava, Maramures and Mehedinti," informs a press release from the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police (IGPR) sent on Monday to AGERPRES.
As part of the research and documentation of the mentioned criminal activities, other crimes closely related to the ones already enumerated were also discovered by the police, namely traffic violations on public roads, crimes of possession of dangerous drugs for personal use, outside the law, and such crimes as taking or giving bribery.
In the same file, the police is investigating into the crime of migrant trafficking, committed in the context of the outbreak and development of the armed conflict in Ukraine.
"In the context in which the Ukrainian authorities have imposed restrictive movement measures on their own citizens, some of them would have tried to fraudulently cross the state border with Romania," the IGPR shows.
The action is carried out with the support of the policemen from BCCO Iasi, BCCO Bacau, BCCO Oradea, BCCO Cluj-Napoca, BCCO Craiova, SCCO (Organized Crime Service) Maramures, SCCO Covasna, SCCO Mehedinti, SCCO Gorj and from the Economic Crime Combating Services of the Oradea County Police Inspectorate (IPJ), IPJ Bistrita Nasaud and IPJ Satu Mare.
Specialist support is provided by the Special Operations Directorate of the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police and the Technical and Forensic Bureau of DIICOT.
