Operations to combat corruption on Serbian border

Customs officers, border guards on the border with Serbia, were detained on Tuesday in a vast operation to combat corruption.

The suspects are accused of bribery and promoting trafficking in tigarettes.

Meanwhile, raids in other places in the country took place, in search of smugglers.

It is the second episode of this kind, after last week's event at customs Siret, where 59 people are being investigated.

The event is coordinated by National Authority Directorate prosecutors and by anti-corruption officers from the Ministry of Interior.

Several border officers and customs workers at the border points Naidǎ and Stamora Moraviţa, suspected of acts of corruption, were transported to hearings at the Bucharest National Authority Directorate.

The forces of order raided not only the checkpoint Moldova Nouǎ, but also the border county police headquarters Oraviţa.

At Stamora Moraviţa custom-house 15 people were detained, 10 were already taken up in a helicopter and are on their way to the Bucharest National Authority Directorate.

In all actions have been arrested nearly 100 customs workers, border guards, and cigarette smuggling suspects.

All are suspected of bribery and smuggling cigarettes.

According to investigators, research in this case began several months ago.

Anti-corruption officers have monitored the activity in the border using tracking techniques.

All exits were blocked Tuesday morning, by city crews and Special Forces police gendarmes.

Dozens of police, Anti-Corruption General Directorate officers, prosecutors and policemen raided several homes of publicans and border police in Timisoara.

The operation on Tuesday morning was attended by two thousand policemen and gendarmes.

Trade union leaders are not ‘strangers to the corruption of the Romanian customs’

The Administration and Interior Minister, Traian Igaş, said that some police union leaders are not strangers to the corruption of the Romanian Customs, appealing to them ‘to position themselves in a certain way towards this phenomenon’.

He added that customs raids in recent days do not happen only to influence European countries in view of Romania’s accession to the Schengen Area, but is an action started long ago by state institutions, with the objective of securing the border.

‘Basically, what we do these days is something began long time ago. It is not just a result of pressure that people in the European community put on us in terms of corruption.’

‘We have made and continue to do our duty, both in terms of border security, and to expose those who are not one hundred percent professional. I think that is a positive signal for Europe’, Traian Igaş declared.

Those detained are heard at the Bucharest National Authority Directorate, where they were brought by helicopter.

Translated by: Andreea Negrea
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University.