Sorin Stati, former director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Moldova MoldATSA, said amber is smuggled through the Republic of Moldova. According to him, 2,000 tonnes of this precious stone is weekly transported from Ukraine to Moldova and later to Hong Kong. There are also schemes to smuggle cigarettes, alcohol and other goods that are protected by representatives of the former government and high-ranking police officials, IPN reports.

“The amber is smuggled from Ukraine through the Transnistrian region, reaches the airport and about 2 tonnes of amber weekly leaves for Hong Kong,” Sorin State said in the program “Politics of Natalia Morari” on TV8 channel.

According to him, the documents for this precious stone are written as for ordinary goods. “What is interesting is that they write only “stone” on customs declarations,” stated Sorin Stati, noting this scheme is managed by a Democratic heavyweight and anyone else who dares to trade in amber is arrested.

Sorin Stati said the scheme is implemented in cooperation with the police and the managers of the Chisinau International Airport and the Customs Service are aware of this. “All the smuggling schemes are known,” he stated.

He noted he possesses documents from the time he served as MoldATSA director that substantiate his assertions and three are persons who say they received clear instructions as to the smuggling.

The former functionary gave names of persons who conduct and protect the smuggling schemes, but the program producers didn’t manage to contact these or the spokesman for the Democratic Party to obtain a comment. Minister of the Interior Andrei Năstase by phone invited Sorin Stati to the Ministry to make statements immediately after the program.