Three men and a woman were arrested for dealing Subutex, a powerful painkiller which can be taken as a replacement in the treatment of opiate addition. The arrest follows a three-month operation.
The General Police Inspectorate said the leader of the ring is a Moldovan national, 26, who has settled in France. From France the drugs were being sent to Moldova via passenger minibuses, cached inside parcels to avoid scrutiny at the border.
A member of the ring was arrested as he picked up a parcel with 123 tablets hidden inside. The investigation also documented another transfer of 300 tablets.
The tablets were retailed on the black market for 700-900 lei apiece, sometimes after being divided into several doses.
Besides the drugs, searches at the suspects’ homes also revealed more than 13,000 euros, 97,000 lei, several hundreds dollars and pounds in cash, a gas pistol and a smoothbore held illegally.
The suspects face sentences ranging from 7 to 15 years in prison.