Customs officers and border police involved in smuggling networks with Ukraine. File in which more than 100 searches were made
Seven people, including 2 border police officers and 3 customs agents, were detained and five placed under judicial control, in the file targeting groups bringing contraband products from Ukraine, including pesticides, in which 137 searches were carried out. Money, products, pesticides, but also the vehicles were discovered following the raids, informs News.ro.
“On May 8 and 9, 2026, the prosecutors of the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism – Suceava Territorial Service ordered the detention of 7 defendants (including 2 border police officers and 3 customs agents) and the measure of judicial control against 5 other defendants, investigated for committing the crimes of forming an organized criminal group, smuggling, qualified smuggling, taking and giving bribes, trafficking in products or toxic substances, complicity in smuggling, complicity in the trafficking of products or toxic substances and abuse of office”, DIICOT transmitted on Sunday.
Three criminal groups
According to the prosecutors, in the years 2024 and 2025, several people, some of them with dual citizenship, Ukrainian and Romanian, constituted three organized criminal groups, in order to obtain important material benefits from the sale of some products introduced into Romania through contraband: cigarettes and bottles containing refrigerant, respectively pesticides.
“In this context, in September 2024, it was proven that such a smuggling act was carried out, committed within an organized criminal group, when through PTF Siret, a large amount of cigarettes, as well as 20 bottles of refrigerant, which were to be placed on the market in Romania, illegally, were introduced, in addition to other goods exposed to view,” the prosecutors said.
According to them, the introduction of the respective goods from Ukraine to Romania benefited from the support of civil servants involved in border control, who carried out a superficial control over the means of transport, although, considering the quantity of goods transported or their nature, it would have been necessary to at least partially unload the goods, which would have led to the finding of the cigarettes and the 20 bottles of refrigerant.
“Also, in April 2025, the commission of another such crime was proven, committed within an organized criminal group, consisting in the introduction through PTF Vicovu de Sus, by evading customs control, in addition to other goods, of a number of 210 bottles with refrigerant. And this time, the said introduction of goods benefited from the competition of civil servants involved in carrying out border control, who did not check the two vehicles in which the goods were transported”, state the prosecutors.
From the investigations carried out in the first criminal case, it also emerged that the members of the organized crime group regularly introduced from Ukraine to Romania, by evading customs control, both cigarettes and a diverse range of other goods and merchandise, the quantity of which proved their commercial nature.
“Thus, it was established that in order to carry out the introduction of the respective goods, the persons targeted by the investigations, mostly of Ukrainian citizenship or with dual Romanian-Ukrainian citizenship, used Siret and Vicovu de Sus, from Suceava county, and Racovaţ, from Botoşani county, as border crossing points”, mentions DIICOT.
Dozens of cars with contraband
Between November 2024 and November 2025, 23 means of transport were stopped that entered Romania from Ukraine through the 3 border crossing points mentioned above, each time goods were discovered whose quantity proved to be of an obvious commercial nature, which obviously exceeded the maximum value ceiling exempted from the payment of customs duties, or which were prohibited.
“From the research carried out, it also emerged that, in 2025, one of the members of the organized crime group initiated and constituted, together with other people, another organized criminal group, focused this time on committing the crime of qualified smuggling of toxic products or substances, respectively pesticides, as well as of trafficking in toxic products or substances”, the prosecutors' statement reads.
In October 2025, the illegal introduction, from Ukraine to Romania, of 400 liters of pesticides, prohibited on the territory of the European Union, was proven, with the concurrence of civil servants involved in border control, who carried out a formal activity.
Later, the same organized criminal group committed two other acts of trafficking in Romanian territory with potentially toxic products or substances.
Following the searches carried out on May 8, 2026, significant sums of money, 155,920 cigarettes, pesticides, rodenticides of Ukrainian origin, insecticides, as well as two cars, jewelry, clothing, pairs of shoes, purses, perfumes and clothing accessories bearing logos and labels imitating well-known brands were found and seized.
