They will try to finish off Plahotniuc
Even if the old government in Moldova, before leaving, received security guarantees from the United States in the person of their ambassador Derek Hogan, it seems that no one is going to comply with them in Chisinau and Moscow. Clouds are gathering over the entourage of oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, who fled the country, and the “master of Moldova” himself.
The first statements by President Igor Dodon and Prime Minister Maia Sandu that past crimes would not be left unpunished could be considered ritual declarations, but that was not the end of the matter.
At the end of last week, the former head of the state-owned air navigation services company Moldatsa, Sorin Stati, said that tons of cigarettes, anabolic steroids and amber were being smuggled out of Moldova every day. The process was led by Plahotniuc’s inner circle.
The smuggling of cigarettes through the Moldova Post was ensured by the people of businessman and deputy Ilan Shor, Plahotniuc’s confidant Costantin Tutu was responsible for sending them to Moldova, and the then deputy head of the General Inspectorate of Police, Gheorghe Cavcaliuc, was responsible for the supply of ethyl alcohol and cigarettes from Transnistria.
Tsutu and Plahotniuc.
Stati also said that two tons of smuggled amber, delivered from Ukraine, were exported from Moldova to Hong Kong every week. The Secretary General of the Democratic Party, Kostantin Botnari, nicknamed “Barsetka,” was responsible for this. According to documents, Ukrainian amber was classified as a “stone”, and in Hong Kong they made jewelry from it.
According to Stati, smuggling stopped only with the resignation of the government of Filip, controlled by Plahotniuc.
Prime Minister Sandu immediately responded to the accusations, demanding that the prosecutor's office open criminal cases. And President Dodon convened the Security Council on June 26. They discussed “identifying and eliminating all smuggling schemes, primarily four groups of goods: amber, anabolic steroids, cigarettes and alcohol.”
The "roof" is over. No one will return from abroad to cover up illegal schemes. All of them must be disclosed and eliminated, and those involved must be brought to criminal responsibility. The Supreme Security Council will monitor the entire investigation process in this area. The next meeting will take place in 10 days,” Dodon wrote in his Telegram channel.
On the same day, the investigative department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs filed an in absentia charge of drug smuggling against the Moldovan oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, who is on the run.
According to the investigation, he was part of the leadership of a transnational criminal community that organized a channel for the smuggling of especially large quantities of the narcotic drug hashish from North Africa in transit through the countries of the European Union to the CIS countries and their subsequent illegal sale, including on the territory of the Russian Federation.
In Belarus, Moldova and Spain, more than 60 participants in the international drug syndicate have already been identified and prosecuted. Over 1 ton of the narcotic drug hashish was seized from illegal trafficking.
There are 28 episodes in the case. Charges have also been brought against Plahotniuc’s confidant Constantin Tutu, who organized the “popular protest” against the new Moldovan government, when professional athletes did not allow government members to work. Oleg Pruteanu is also mentioned as the organizer of the drug syndicate.
Tsutu and Pruteanu, nicknamed “Borman,” have appeared in criminal chronicles before. In 2012, they were accused in the murder of crime boss from Orhei Alexei Veretko. However, in May of this year, a Moldovan court acquitted both of them.
In 2015, Moldovan media published the indictment of Romanian prosecutors, which they sent to court in the case of the leaders of the Patron group, headed by Pruteanu. In particular, the document spoke about the criminal showdown surrounding the illegal production of cigarettes in Romania in the summer of 2013, in which Constantin Tutu played a significant role.
If Plahotniuc’s whereabouts are unknown, Tsutu is rumored to be in Kyiv.
The oligarch himself called all the accusations “fantasies.”
“Now there is enormous pressure from Moscow and Moldova to open case after case against me, in the hope that this will be more effective. People are being pressured to give false testimony against me. The ultimate goal is to intimidate me,” Plahotniuc wrote on Facebook.
The physical absence of Plahotniuc in Moldova does not prevent him from influencing the situation through tens and hundreds of people remaining in the structures of government and justice. Thus, on June 26, the Cahul Appeals Chamber was unable to consider the prosecutors’ request to arrest Plahotniuc’s ally, businessman and deputy Ilan Shor, who is involved in the case of stealing a billion dollars from Moldovan banks.
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