Romania’s anti-organized crime department solves 12% more cases in 2016

Romanian prosecutors from the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) had over 25,600 cases to solve in 2016, 16.4% more than in the previous year, according to the institution's annual report. DIICOT had 244 prosecutors in 2016, down from 256 in 2015. Thus, each prosecutor had an average of 105 cases to solve last year, up from 86 cases the year before. However, the DIICOT prosecutors managed to solve more than half of the 25,600 cases registered in 2016, namely 13,168. The year before, they managed to solve 11,702 cases. More than 15,200 people were investigated last year in the cases handled by DIICOT, down 12% year-on-year. In 2015, the number of investigated people was 17,291. The total damages found in the cases solved by DIICOT prosecutors in 2016 amounted to some EUR 135 million, compared to EUR 173 million in 2015, the report shows. The total value of precautionary measures ordered in the cases solved in 2016 was of some EUR 46.5 million, down from EUR 117.1 million in 2015. Meanwhile, the total value of precautionary measures ordered during the year 2016 was over RON 4.2 billion (some EUR 935 million). Last year, DIICOT also solved 490 cases related to organized crime, 552 cases of human trafficking, and 28 cases related to migrant smuggling. When it comes to drug trafficking, the DIICOT prosecutors had more than 12,100 cases to solve last year, and managed to finalize 4,525 of them, 25% more than in 2015. They seized 5,907 kg of drugs last year, of which 2,782 kg were high-risk drugs. In 2015, the prosecutors seized 1,205 kg of drugs. When it comes to economic and financial crimes, the prosecutors had over 2,200 cases to solve in 2016, and completed 335 of them. Of the total number of cases to solve, 863 targeted tax evasion, 588 were related to crimes covered by the Customs Code, 388 targeted money laundering, and 379 focused on other economic crimes. DIICOT prosecutors also had 7,160 cases of cyber crimes to solve last year, and managed to finalize more than 2,000 of them. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com