A criminal group specialized in swindles was hunted down. The group members are suspected of causing damage of about 1 million lei to an oil company operating in the municipality of Chisinau by illegally stealing money from cards intended for purchasing oil products, IPN reports.

Last weekend, officers of the Rascani Police Inspectorate of Chisinau, in concert with the Rascani Prosecutor’s Office, carried out 12 searches and arrested 11 persons. “These include nine men and two women aged between 19 and 36. This criminal group implemented a fraudulent scheme to illegally get money from the accounts of a company. Three members of the group were employees of this company. They worked as senior operators at a filling station and managed the fraudulent schemes,” said the spokesman for the Chisinau Police Division Adrian Jovmir

According to the police, during one day the members of the group could withdraw up to 20,000 lei from the cards. “Cards, money and memory sticks with information about the stolen amounts were found during the searches. Drugs and pills with psychotropic effect were discovered on one of the members of the group. This could have been also involved in trading in narcotic substances,” stated Jovmir.

The group members were placed under arrest for 72 hours initially. Later, eight of these got detention terms of 15 to 25 days. Three members are under house arrest. The suspects face 8 to 15 years in jail.