Officers of the Security and Intelligence Service jointly with the employees of the Customs Service, and prosecutors, dismantled a criminal group specialized in particularly large-scale smuggling of consumer goods. One individual has been placed in preventive detention for 20 days and the other four are currently placed under house arrest.
The criminal activity of the accused has been documented during the last months, when officers determined modus operandi of the group members, their travel routes, as well as places for supply, storage and marketing of the smuggled goods.
According to the materials of the criminal case, the goods were purchased from the “Seventh-Kilometer” market from Odessa and were introduced into the country through the Transnistrian region, circumventing internal customs control. The accused were using rented or borrowed cars, regularly changing them in order to avoid any attention of the law enforcement bodies.
During the operation, on 1 August 2020, 5 individuals were caught in flagrante, as they were preparing to send the goods to the final beneficiaries, in a parking lot in Chișinău. The accused are from Criuleni, Călărași and Fălești districts. They are aged between 26 and 39 and some of them have previous convictions.
Immediately after the detention of the group, SIS and Customs Service officers together with PCCOCS (Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases) prosecutors conducted inspections at several premises from the country, carrying out 14 searches. As a result, they seized massive amounts of consumer goods, worth over 1 million lei, and four means of transport, used for the illegal transportation of goods.
Investigations into this case continue in order to establish the entire criminal area and to identify all the individuals involved. If the guilt of the arrested individuals is proven in court, they risk a sentence of up to 10 years in prison for smuggling committed by two or more people.
