Three Ukrainian citizens and a citizen of Belarus illegally crossed the border of the Republic of Moldova with an airplane. All the four were arrested initially, but two of them managed to run away and are now wanted, IPN reports.
The head of the General Border Police Inspectorate Rosian Vasiloi told a news conference that a patrol of the Cuhnești Border Police Sector on the night of September 14 noticed a small flying machine at a height of about 100 meters. This crossed the border from Moldova to Romania. In an hour, a border police patrol of the Valea Rusului Sector sent the information that a small flying vehicle was noticed on the Drujineni – Zaboloteni route and this crossed the border from Romania to Moldova already. When the airplane landed in Hlinaia Mică village of Edineț district for fuelling, the police decided to arrest the pilots. If the pilots had managed to take off, the aircraft would have dissipated from radars and the arrest would have been impossible.
According to Rosian Vasiloi, information in this case started to be collected in August. “We received clear signals on September 8. The search operation was conducted on Saturday, Sunday and Monday,” stated the official.
Daniel Martnos, deputy chief of the General Border Police Inspectorate, said there were no cigarettes when the arrests were made, but they presume that the flying machine was used to smuggle cigarettes. “This is only a supposition and if there had been cigarettes, it is not known if the plane had been loaded with cigarettes in Ukraine or in Moldova,” stated Daniel Martnos. Other details about the carried out searches weren’t provided so as not to hinder the investigation.
The inquiry is conducted in concert with employees of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and a joint investigation team was constituted for the purpose. The suspects are investigated for illegal crossing of the border and unauthorized crossing of Moldova’s airspace.
