Thursday, March 29th 2001:"General Dan Fatuloiu Warns: the Italian Mafiosi Have Joined the Underworld"

RCJI

Yesterday, at the Military House, representatives of the National Defense College Foundation and the Interior Ministry talked about the proliferation of terrorist rings and about the organized crime groups that are currently active in the Romanian territory. This is a risk factor for national security. Colonel Mihai Ozun, the foundation's chairman, said that the criminal organizations' intention is not to conduct a visible coup d'etat, as in the case of the terrorist attacks. Their activity aims at "emptying the meaning from the concept of democracy while keeping its outer shell." This is the way in which they make an attempt against national security.

Among the major threats to Romania's national security we can find the activity carried out by some international terrorist organizations. Brigadier General Dan Valentin Fatuloiu, deputy chief of the General Directorate in Charge of Fighting Organized Crime and Anti-Drug [DGCCOA] in the IGP [General Police Inspectorate], drew the aforementioned conclusion. Illegal commercial operations, namely smuggling various goods, together with tax evasion, are the main criminal activities carried out on Romanian territory. In such cases, Romanian police have identified members belonging to some terrorist dissident Palestinian organizations. Some fundamentalist Islamic and terrorist ethnic-separatist organizations are also present. Trafficking in drugs, armaments, ammunition, explosives, and counterfeit currency, as well as trafficking in human beings has significantly increased. Terrorist organizations such as the PKK [Workers' Party of Kurdistan] (expert in ammunition and explosives), Hezbollah (expert in drug trafficking), the People's Front for Palestine's Liberation are carrying out the aforementioned criminal activities. The fact that some of the funds obtained are used to give support in Romania to the terrorist organizations' own activities is very worrisome. The rest of the funds are illegally taken ou from the country to support the terrorist activities at the international level.

"We Have To Start Doing Something"

In relation to the international organized crime that carries out actions on Romanian territory, the DGCCOA deputy head said that the Italian Mafia and the terrorist groups "are best represented in Romania." The Italian mafiosi structures have established connections with domestic underworld gangs and are trying to attract members of rings from the CIS region. They aim at carrying out activities such as illegal adoptions, and trafficking in armament and explosive substances. Multiple mechanisms are used. For example, the representatives of some Italian mafiosi families have established a legal commercial presence in Romania. Under this screen, they run actions to obtain funds, also through illegal means. As Gen Fatuloiu said, a member of the Neapolitan Camorra was expelled from Romania. The Italian authorities arrested him and charged him with trafficking in armaments and narcotics, trafficking, kidnaping and sequestering, attempted murder, and laundering money obtained from illegal activities. During his stay in Romania, the Italian tried to set up mafiosi-type gangs and to attract collaborators among Romanian citizens. Romanian authorities have also expelled "two important representatives of the Italian Mafia, who planned to coordinate some complex rings to launder funds on Romanian territory. The policemen succeeded in hindering the laundering of a sum amounting to $400-500 million," the former head of the Bucharest Police added.

During the same debate, division General Alexandru Ionas, general director of the Regional Center in charge of Fighting Crossborder Crime [SECI], said that Romania is the sole European country where, instead of developing services charged with fighting organized crime, [the authorities have] "weakened them." Consequently, everything will have to be resumed from scratch."

How Can One Do Anything, When There Is No Collaboration?

Despite the official statements, the organized crime phenomenon is not perceived in Romania at its genuine dimension. Both the police and the secret services still treat the various activities carried out by the organized criminal groups as isolated phenomena. To be more precise, if the contract killings, debt collection, narcotics and human being trafficking, as well as blackmail and other similar actions are dealt with separately, the policemen will have to solve only insignificant cases and not organized crimes. More than that, divergent opinions exist between the policemen and the intelligence services staff. The policemen do not provide the SRI [Romanian Intelligence Service] or the SIE [Foreign Intelligence Service] employees with any intelligence. They do not trust each other. This is also the result of the fact that some policemen or intelligence officers prefer to use intelligence in relation to the organized crime underworld in a personal manner. This way, well-established groups of the organized crime circles are carrying out their activity unhampered. Sometimes they do it right under the authorities' very noses and, sometimes, with their knowledge.

Competent Policemen, Removed From Office

Most of the files investigated by the police, which, if put together, would have offered clues on some organized crime groups, are not yet solved. More than that, these files were spread among various police departments. Consequently, there is no policeman who has an overall picture of the phenomenon. Each of them is investigating an insignificant part of the case. There were also situations when policemen belonging to the Brigade in Charge of Fighting Organized Crime, experts in a specific field who had been trained in the West, were simply fired or were removed from office and assigned work in other fields for which they had not been trained. The changes have always taken place after they gained control over the phenomenon and started to obtain results. A recent example in this respect is the case of the four drug enforcement officers who investigated the "Sintofarm - Zaharia Toma" file [Interior Minister's first deputy; his wife is allegedly involved in illegal imports of acetic anhydride]. These officers were either removed from office or placed at the Interior Ministry's disposal.

Among the organized crime rings that have gained influence in recent years, we could name Kurd, Turkish, or French gangs. At the same time, the domestic groups have enlarged their operational area outside the country's borders, too. As a matter of fact, the secret services' reports from countries such as Belgium, the UK, Australia, or the United States of America, mention the Romanians as leaders of important criminal organizations. They have fixed rings for the transport of smuggled goods, for arms and drugs transportation. What is most worrisome with regard to the Romanian organized crime rings, is the fact that many of them are set up and led by former officers of the Romanian secret services. After [December] 1989 they were not employed for special operations anymore and started working on their own.

The International Mafiosi That Have Carried Out Actions on Romanian Territory Unhampered

Among the famous mafiosi that have operated unhampered under the Romanian policemen's noses, we would like to name the Perletto brothers. They were ultimately arrested in Spain, during a broad operation called "Topaz" carried out by the French and Spanish policemen. The police found out that the Perletto brothers used to transport drugs from South America through the Constanta harbor. Romanian police did not bother the Perletto brothers while they were doing business in the country.

The Kurd Fatih Kesser is another one of the mafiosi that ran businesses unhampered in Romania. He set a record in fiscal evasion matters. He contracted the murder of the Golden Falcon Company's owner. According to our information, the Kurd has left prison and cannot be found anywhere.