Several former and current Ministry of Interior (MAI) staff were involved in the organization and operation of a large network of migrants on the territory of Romania. The network was also coordinated by a former employee of the Ministry of the Interior.
The policemen of the Service for Combating Organized Crime Caraş-Severin, together with the D.I.I.C.O.T. prosecutors. – On Tuesday, the Caraş-Severin Territorial Office carried out 67 searches in the counties of Caraş-Severin, Timiş, Arad, Bihor, Argeş, Sibiu and in Bucharest, in a criminal case concerning the commission of the crimes of forming an organized criminal group, migrant trafficking , fraudulent crossing of the state border of Romania, facilitation of illegal stay in Romania and money laundering. The actions of the DIICOT prosecutors are carried out in coordination with those of the DNA prosecutors.
“From the investigations carried out, it emerged that for a work permit the migrants paid amounts between 500 – 1000 euros, and the shorter the term for obtaining it was, the higher the requested price became, even reaching 5000 – 6000 euros for one person”, says a press release by the General Police Inspectorate (IGPR). “Also, it was established that the members of the organized criminal group, using relationships with workers of the Caraș-Severin Immigration Bureau based on acts of corruption, facilitated the stay on Romanian territory of some foreign citizens whose visas had expired and had to be returned to their country of origin “.
“On 04.06.2024 the prosecutors of the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism – Caraș-Severin Territorial Office together with police officers from the Caraș-Severin Organized Crime Service, with the support of BCCO Timişoara, SCCO Arad, BCCO Oradea, BCCO Alba-Iulia, SCCO Sibiu, BCCO Cluj, BCCO Craiova, BCCO Pitesti, BCCO Bucharest, implement a number of 67 home search warrants within the Caras-Severin, Timiş, Arad, Bihor, Argeş, Sibiu counties and Bucharest municipality in a criminal file regarding the commission of the crimes of forming an organized criminal group, migrant trafficking, fraudulent crossing of the state border of Romania, facilitating illegal stay in Romania and money laundering“, according to a press release from the IGPR.
“From the investigations carried out it emerged that, in the course of 2022 against the background of the emergence of a new mode of operation aimed at the trafficking of migrants (introducing them into Romania with work visas, but with the real purpose of facilitating their passage to countries in the Schengen area), a suspect, a former employee of the MAI, initiated and constituted a criminal group organized through 7 commercial companies (of which five with the same tax domicile) to which other commercial companies also joined, some of them controlled by another suspect (Colonel in reserve), who after retirement developed a method of obtaining substantial material benefits through a company established for the purpose of recruiting labor from abroad”, the statement adds.
The organized crime group involved in migrant trafficking was made up, according to DIICOT, of “more than 37 suspects, Romanian and foreign citizens and 7 groups of companies totaling 31 commercial companies with headquarters in Caraș-Severin, Timiș and Arad”.
“The criminal activity was carried out on six levels, respectively: one formed by the leaders of the groups of companies, followed by the people in their immediate vicinity and who performed various functions within the companies, another formed by former and current M.A.I. staff, a level constituted from the de jure and de facto representatives of some companies from Caraș-Severin county rounded up for the same criminal purpose and the last two tiers formed by other members of the organized crime group, some having the task of allowing the use of their property as a location for establishing the domicile to people who received a work permit in Romania, and the others dealing with the transportation and transfer of migrants who arrived in Romania with the intention of later entering the territory of other EU member states. From the criminal investigation documents, it emerged that the administrators or associations of the commercial companies established links with external recruiters, and the Romanian citizen employees, members of the criminal group, had the task of obtaining work permits and residence visas for the recruited persons. in Romania. For this purpose, they rounded up employees with decision-making power or former employees with influence over officials from the Caraș-Severin, Timiș, Arad and Hunedoara offices of the General Inspectorate for Immigration, thus generating a state of danger to national security as a result of favoring the penetration on the territory of Romania of foreign citizens with potential terrorist risk”.
Up to this point, it has been determined that the criminal group obtained work permits in violation of legal procedures for a number of 1,181 foreign nationals, most of them from Pakistan and Bangladesh (over 80%), but also from Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Sudan, some of them leaving Romania to go to more economically developed European states, without having any contact with the company that recruited them.