The Alba County Police Chief and four other officers are under criminal investigation by DNA for allegedly protecting businessmen involved in illegal logging and pressuring other officers to stop investigating them.
The National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) in Romania has opened a criminal investigation against Florin Constantin Dogaru, the Police Chief of Alba County, and four other police officers. They are suspected of abusing their power to protect businessmen involved in illegal logging and pressuring other officers to stop investigating them.
Protecting Illegal Logging Businesses
According to prosecutors, the accused officers "protected the interests of the other indicted suspects (at the time, the vast majority were involved in illegal logging) by improperly performing their official duties in relation to two police officers from the Alba County Police Inspectorate and the Alba-Iulia Special Operations Brigade (BOS), whose police work allegedly interfered with that of the businessmen."
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Alleged Illegal Actions
Specifically, following inspections carried out by the two officers in areas where illegal logging was taking place, at the insistence of the businessmen or in exchange for undue benefits (in the case of the defendant Dan Toma), the accused police officers allegedly carried out a number of illegal activities, including:
Repeated proposals/pressure to change jobs
Sending the businessmen the work schedule of one of the officers
Conducting two disciplinary investigations against one of the officers in violation of legal provisions
Abusing their authority to sanction one of the officers by reducing his salary by 10% for a period of 3 months,under the conditions that the subject matter of the preliminary investigation that resulted in the aforementioned measure was the same as that of a criminal case in which the prosecutors, after the preliminary investigation was finalized, ordered the classification of the case, finding that the facts alleged against the officer did not exist
Illegally detaching him to a police station located a long way from his workplace, from that date on, and then exerting pressure to accept the definitive transfer of the same police officer from the police station in the area where the businessmen operated.
Intimidation and Bribery Allegations
In addition, the investigation alleges that the defendant N.C.G. (administrator of SC VLAD & ANDREI FOREST SRL),in order to intimidate them, followed, surveilled, photographed/filmed without right and without any legitimate interest,the two police officers at their homes, workplaces and other places they frequented.
In the context above, the defendants S.I. (businessman), F.M.I. (person involved in illegal logging) and N.C.G. allegedly promised a person (witness in the case) the sum of 5,000 euros to traffic a supposed influence that they would have let it be believed that they had over some officials in the leadership of the General Inspectorate of the Police, and that he would use it to get them to transfer the other officer to another police unit," DNA said.
The case highlights the issue of corruption within law enforcement and the challenges of combating illegal logging. It is important to ensure that law enforcement officials uphold the law and act with integrity, and that those who engage in corrupt practices are held accountable.
Disclaimer: Please note that the information presented in this article is based on publicly available reports from the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) in Romania. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Source: Biziday
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