The network of luxury cars stolen from the EU and cloned in Romania: DIICOT makes dozens of searches

DIICOT Ploiești prosecutors and Prahova police on Thursday carried out 30 searches in the capital and in several counties, in a case of fraud and forgery targeting a group that sold stolen luxury cars online from Spain and Austria, with a loss of over 800,000 euros.

The descents take place in the counties of Prahova, Ialomița, Argeș, Teleorman, Bistrița-Năsăud and in the municipality of Bucharest. The searches target both the residences of individuals and the headquarters of commercial companies, according to IPJ Prahova, quoted by Agerpres.

The criminal case is opened for the establishment of an organized criminal group, fraud, material falsification of official documents and use of forgery.

The organized crime group was established and operated between 2024 and June 2026. Under the leadership of the leader, the members of the network aimed to obtain significant financial benefits from the sale of stolen luxury cars.

“The target cars would have been stolen, either by electronic unlocking, duplicate keys or relay attack, or obtained by deception and transported to Romania or neighboring states, where the identification elements would have been modified and a new series engraved corresponding to a “clean” car, of the same brand, color and year of manufacture (clones) would have been carried out,” the investigators state

To introduce the cars to the market, the suspects used as documents of provenance blanks of original documents brought from Spain and Austria, on which they falsified only the newly transcribed data.

Later, the cloned vehicles were presented at various points of work of the Romanian Auto Registry (RAR). Based on the documents issued by the institution, the cars were officially registered and put up for sale, mostly on social networks, to bona fide buyers.

Only during a single year, in the period 2024-2025, the criminal group harmed several injured persons with an amount exceeding 800,000 euros. The payment was made in cash or by bank transfer, and the money was divided among the members of the group by means of intermediaries from the family or close entourage.

All the suspects were taken for questioning to the headquarters of DIICOT – Ploiești Territorial Service.