Searches in multiple locations across the country today led to eight people being arrested and a total of 3.5 million lei in cash being seized by the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Anticorruption Chief Prosecutor Veronica Dragalin told a subsequent press briefing the currency was intended for paying participants in the Shor Party’s protests and the carriers transporting them.
Dragalin said the investigation leading up to today’s searches lasted for several months and that it had been sanctioned by investigative judges. The operation involved wiretapping phone conversations between people in charge of cash and distributers responsible for dispensing it further down the line to the protesters and for handling other protest-related expenses.
According to Dragalin, people in charge were identified across the country, and one such person today was caught in the act of handing out cash.
“At around 5:00AM a person was identified with a bag. The person left Chisinau and headed to the north of the country. At around 7:00AM, the person was detained while handing over money to the leader of a Shor Party district organization. Later, searches were carried out at the homes and cars of several suspects persons, searches that are still ongoing”, said Dragalin, promising additional details tomorrow.
She added that some 20 bags full of dollar and lei bills were seized. One bag, for example, contained some 25,000 lei. The total of 3.5 million lei, according to Dragalin, is the weekly amount allocated by the Shor Party for its regular anti-government protests.
