RAIDS IN THE CUSTOMS OF SOUTH WESTERN ROMANIA Valer Marian: "New raids to follow in the counties of Satu Mare and Maramureş"

Border patrolmen and customs officers of the Western side of Romania were carried to the Bucharest office of the National Anticorruption Department by helicopter.

• The targeted customs: Sighet, Halmeu, Petea, Borş and the Diocese of Bihor

• The senator claims that the factions involved in cigarette smuggling are now moving into drug traffic

• Yesterday"s controls on the border with Serbia should have been accompanies by similar actions on the border with Hungary

• The head of the customs, up for indictment?

The following raids of the investigators will take place in the customs of the counties of Satu Mare and Maramureş, Valer Marian, PSD senator of Satu Mare and vice-president of the Commission for combating corruption said to BURSA. Valer Marian said: "According to the information I have received, I can tell you that most likely, in the following days, there will probably be more raids in the customs of North-Western Romania: Sighet, Halmeu Petea, Borş and the Diocese of Bihor. In Satu Mare, the evidence has been submitted some time ago and over 40-50 policemen and customs officers are targeted. The cases may have already been drawn up".

Valer Marian (former prosecutor) said that in the North-Western area of Romania, there are cross-border criminal groups involved in cigarette smuggling, with ramifications in Ukraine as well as in Hungary - which is a member of the Schengen space.

In his opinion, if the desire to eliminate cigarette smuggling is genuine, then "prosecutors should go all the way to the top" instead of investigating customs officers and policemen, who are merely "pawns".

"So far, it"s only the small fish that caught; this is no way to fix the problem, because these networks rebuild themselves very quickly", the senator says. Officials sources however, told us that today, the head of the National Customs Authority, Traian Radu Mărginean, would be summoned to the headquarters of the National Anticorruption Department of Oradea, to provide explanations on the graft case of 130,000 Euros, which the DNA brought against the Halmeu customs last week.

Senator Valer Marian announced last week, (when the raid of the Siret customs took place) that there would be arrests at the customs located on the border to Serbia, in the South-Western part of Romania.

Tens of customs officers and policemen, suspected of cigarette smuggling, were arrested yesterday in South-Western Romania at the customs of Moraviţa, Năidaş and Oraviţa and brought in to Bucharest for questioning. Bags full of documents were carried away by investigators, and the suspects were transported using all kinds of means of transportation, including helicopters. Locations in other counties, as well as in Bucharest, were raided as well.

Valer Marian also claims that the factions involved in cigarette smuggling are now moving into drug traffic, which in his opinion is a lot more dangerous. "I have information that these networks, which are being investigated for cigarette smuggling, have begun bringing drugs into the country", he said. The senator also said that next week, he will propose the creation of a Parliamentary Commission to investigate smuggling.

• Valer Marian, on yesterday"s checks: "Logically and chronologically, the customs of the county of Arad, on the border with Hungary should have been raided as well".

PSD senator Valer Marian claims that yesterday"s raids on the border with Serbia should have been accompanied by other raids on the customs of the county of Arad - which are the smugglers" gateways to the Schengen area: "The customs of South Eastern Romania Stamora-Moraviţa, Jimbolia, Oraviţa and Năidaş are used for bringing in cigarettes made in the former Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia or Kosovo etc). Most of these cigarettes are sold in Romania, and the rest are shipped to countries in the Schengen space. In my opinion, yesterday"s raids weren"t handled properly. The raids of the South-Western border were not accompanied by raids on the points which are used for smuggling those cigarettes out of the country to the countries of the Schengen space. I am referring to the customs of the county of Arad - Nădlac, Turnu or Curtici. The fact that these raids were only made in the locations where cigarettes enter the country could tip off the policemen of the Arad area, who could thus avoid prosecution. Still, the prosecutors may have taken the adequate measures to prevent that from happening".

It is interesting to note that after last week"s arrests in the North-Eastern region of Romania (Siret), many of the employees of the customs located on the Serbian border were on holiday.

• • Valer Marian on the infighting in the PDL: "This could be a warning for the Falcă group"

PSD senator Valer Marian said he doesn"t rule the possibility that the recent raids are blows that factions within the PDL are dealing each other, as the elections for the presidency of the party (scheduled for May) are getting near.

The PSD senator recently claimed, in a political statement, that the recent raids are actually a reckoning between the former minister of Administration and Internal Affairs Vasile Blaga, and his current replacement, Traian Igaş. The senator claims that Igaş has the backing of his "political mentor", the mayor of Arad, Gheorghe Falcă, and of the head of the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), Sorin Blejnar.

According to the senator, the raids which took place so far happened in the areas where Vasile Blaga - who is a potential candidate for the presidency of the PDL, but who has fallen out of favor with president Traian Băsescu - is extremely influential. Besides, if the information provided by our sources turns out to be true and the head of the Customs Department, Traian Radu Mărginean gets investigated by the prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Department (DNA), this would mean yet another blow for Blaga, since it is well known that Traian Radu Mărginean and Vasile Blaga are good friends.

However, Valer Marian said that yesterday"s raids in the South Western area shouldn"t come as a surprise: "First of all, following my revelations (ed. note: on the infighting of the PDL) and those that appeared in the mass-media, I don"t think any of it could have been simply glossed over, and not have any raids happen in that area. If they didn"t, it would have made it look like the DNA prosecutors were siding with one of the two factions.

Even though this action is beneficial for Romania"s image, it is a belated attempt at showing Western countries that we are ready to join the Schengen space. It could also serve as a warning to Gheorghe Falcă, that his < turf > isn"t safe, as well as to the Satu Mare - Maramureş area, where contraband is just as rampant as it is in the Siret area".