Officers of the Bucharest Brigade for the Fight against Organised Crime (BCCOB) yesterday raided six wholesale markets in Afumati, Stefanesti and Voluntari, along with the head offices of ghost companies dealing in the import of bananas and citric fruits, which deprived the Romanian state of incomes worth EUR 100 M in total. Policemen searched 11 locations – offices, warehouses and homes – controlled by Turkish citizens that formed a criminal organised group which committed acts of fiscal fraud and contraband of fruits and other food products. Judiciary sources quoted by Mediafax said that magistrates ordered 12 members of the group to be brought for questioning – 7 Turks and 5 Romanians. According to the sources, the members of the group (over 15 Turkish traders and their Romanian employees) imported products from Turkey, South-East Asia and Latin America by containers and ships, mainly via Constanta Port, acting on behalf of ghost companies. From port, the fruits were transported by truck to warehouses near Bucharest, controlled by the members of the group, which registered fictive data in accounting books. Later, the goods were sold to other firms – also to ghost companies – with the purpose of artificially raising the prices, then were put on sale on the agrifood market of Bucharest.
