Romanian authorities break Craiova – based illegal US migration crime group led by three Romanians

The Romanian Police and prosecutors recently dismantled a crime group which was specializing in migrant traffic from Romania to Mexico, Canada and eventually the US. The police started 13 searches into the homes of alleged group members in the Romanian town of Craiova. The crime group allegedly helped over 600 people illegally migrate to Mexico and the US, and made around USD 1 million from their activity. Eight tourism agencies in Craiova were also investigated. Over 60 people will brought in for court hearings.

Prosecutors named the leaders of the group as 39-year old Chiciu Dumitru, nicknamed Paris, 40-year old Serdaru Filip, and 44-year old Popescu Luigi Cristinel, who were, according to the prosecutors, members of crime gangs in Craiova. The members of the group helped Roma people from the counties of Dolj, Vâlcea and Mehedinţi and smuggled them illegally across the border between Mexico and the US, or the US and Canada, and asked for USD 8,000 per person for doing so. Prosecutors discovered that 600 people left Romania for Mexico, and 300 of them were later on found in the US. “Migrants were helped to illegally reach the Mexican cities of Cancun and Mexico City, and, after the payment was made, they were taken over by other group members and transferred to the US, to Los Angeles or New York,” according to prosecutors. The case came to light when some of the migrants could not pay the services in full and so were obliged to commit crimes or start begging for the crime group. Romanian prosecutors and the Romanian Police worked with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the US Department of Homeland Security. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: US border security's Flickr stream)