Romanian prosecutors detain two German citizens on human trafficking charges

Romanian prosecutors from the Directorate for Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), the Arad Office, detained a man with German citizenship and a woman with Romanian-German citizenship for 24 hours last week. The man is accused of human trafficking while the woman is charged with complicity to human trafficking. DIICOT prosecutors say in a statement that, between July 2014 and July 2015, Mette Christian Gerhard Heinrich Albert, with the help of Kulas Eva, recruited 30 people from Romania, through deceit, and housed them in Germany. They allegedly exploited the 30 men and women by forcing them to work in the field or do household chores. On January 4 this year, the two defendants were caught while trying to leave Romania from the Cluj-Napoca Airport. They wanted to go to Germany, reads the DIICOT statement. While checking them, the prosecutors found and seized EUR 31,680, money that it is believed to have resulted from criminal activities. On January 6, the Arad Court decided that they should spend the next 30-day arrest as the investigation goes on. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com