Cross-Border Drug-Smuggling Network Dismantled with the Support of SRI

21 September 2017

In keeping with SRI activities targeted at identifying, preventing and countering threats to national security, the Service’s specialized unit collected and gathered intelligence related to a vast cross-border organized crime network involved in global illicit drug trade.

SRI undertook major efforts in dealing with such a variety of activities (drug trafficking via Latin America providers, segmentation of the transportation and distribution market for the European consumers), with their transnational nature and with the diversity of organized crime risks in order to manage and coordinate all the intelligence operations carried out in association with institutional partners from other countries.

In fact, the intelligence that SRI had gathered indicated that the network which included mainly Romanian citizens initiated channels for cocaine trafficking in Europe, for the distribution and marketing of drugs in the UK, and gradually expanded its existing connections in Latin America, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and the UK.

Drugs were dispatched in ports from Belgium and Netherlands in order to be deposited for a limited period of time and later delivered to truck drivers who would redirect them to drug distribution networks.

According to the law, the intelligence that SRI gathered was shared with its national partners (DIICOT, IGPR and IGPF) and, following the specific measures which had been taken, they searched 28 houses and arrested 6 group members from Romania, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain, including the leader of the group who was settled in Romania.

Given its activities, SRI remains determined in its mission to prevent and counter asymmetric threats of organized crime that might impact on national security and on Romania’s image in the light of the Euro Atlantic security commitments.