FBIS3-21770
"jptdd010__l94075"
JPRS-TDD-94-010L
Document Type:JPRS
Document Title:Narcotics
7 March 1994
EAST EUROPE
ROMANIA
Interior Minister Discusses `Explosion' of Mafia-Type Crime
AU0403131594 Bucharest TINERETUL LIBER in Romanian 24 Feb 94
pp 1, 3
AU0403131594
Bucharest TINERETUL LIBER
Language: Romanian
Article Type:BFN
["Exclusive Interview with Lieutenant General George Ioan
Danescu, Minister of Interior, for TINERETUL LIBER"; place and
date not given: "Latest Mafia-Type Armed Confrontations in
Bucharest"]
[Excerpts] [TINERETUL LIBER] Mr. Minister, a new
phenomenon has appeared in Romania today: Mafia-type crime.
What action are the police and Ministry of Interior taking to
prevent and fight this social evil?
Danescu: When you say that we are facing a new
phenomenon, you are referring to its novelty for the broad
public and, maybe, even for you journalists. For us
professionals, however, Mafia-type crime, that is to say
organized crime, is neither new nor surprising, because signs of
it existed in Romania even before December 1989, something which
I also emphasized a year ago at a news conference.
As a matter of fact, it was to be expected that certain
changes that occurred in Romanian society and its opening-up in
the post-revolutionary period would offer favorable conditions
for such developments and for the emergence of negative
phenomena. [passage omitted]
I am mainly referring to illicit organized trafficking in
drugs, counterfeit money, trade in automobiles stolen abroad and
sold in Romania and other states, prostitution, the operation of
international pimps, corruption and smuggling on an unbelievably
large scale, armed attacks to obtain material gain and maintain
an atmosphere of civic insecurity, money laundering and hacking
into banking financial systems, labor-force swindles, illegal
capital transfers abroad, the introduction into the country of
large amounts of toxic waste, arms deals, hired killers, and
blackmail.
As far as corruption alone is concerned, I want to mention
that, in 1990, we uncovered 1,197 such cases; in 1991--4,937; in
1992--6,043; and in 1993--10,631 cases of offering and taking
bribes, misuse of one's position, and receipt of undue benefits.
[passage omitted]
The scale of such violations and the increasingly obvious
tendency of criminals to organize themselves on the basis of
Mafia-type principles have convinced the Ministry of Interior of
the necessity to adopt more firm measures to try to control the
explosion of this phenomenon and stop it from developing. I am
talking of both creating and perfecting new organizational
structures and ensuring the appropriate training of our staff
with special tasks in the area of fighting crime. For example,
in April 1993, we set up the Brigade for Fighting Organized
Crime, which has parallel structures at the local level, as well
as an office for combating corruption with similar departments
at the level of county police inspectorates and in Bucharest.
[passage omitted] As expected, the results of these measures
were not slow in coming; some of them--please forgive my lack of
modesty--were absolutely spectacular.
For example, from April to December last year, employees
from
the Brigade for Fighting Organized Crime arrested 67 people from
whom 11,374,925 [figures as published] kg of drugs were
confiscated (105,658 kg of cocaine, 93,368 kg of heroin, 11,180
kg of cannabis, and 1,108 kg of opium). During the same period,
more exactly in November, we uncovered two operations involving
the smuggling of stolen automobiles in the counties of Bihor and
Mures. [passage omitted] I want to specify that investigations
into 27 counterfeit-money dealers have been finalized; they are
Romanian and foreign citizens belonging to six groups.
Investigations have revealed that these people have put into
circulation counterfeit money amounting to no less than $900,000
and 35,000 German marks in Romania, the Republic of Moldova,
Hungary, and Ukraine.
It is worth mentioning the action organized by the Romanian
police, together with the Criminal Police Directorate, in the
Republic of Moldova, which resulted in the arrest of a network
of criminals who had been organizing the illegal transit through
Romania of foreign citizens bound for West European countries.
[passage omitted]
Although these results give us cause for satisfaction, they
do not make us self-satisfied, because it would be abnormal to
adopt such an attitude when violent confrontations--admittedly
rare--are taking place on the streets of Bucharest, some even
claiming victims. [passage omitted]
We are continuing to promote a wide range of measures,
including increasing the contribution made by other branches of
the Ministry of Interior, aside from that of the police, which
are aimed at fighting organized crime, a present-day evil that
claims human lives and causes tremendous material damage.