Moldovan police arrested three of their own members on charges of smuggling heroin

Moldova's Interior Minister under secret service’s investigation over heroin smuggling.
Moldova's secret service, the Information and Security Service (SIB, by its local initials), has been investigating one of Europe's largest drug smuggling operations, Tiraspol Times reports. According to the paper, the investigation quickly closed in on Interior Minister Lieutenant-General Gheorghe Papuc, 54, who has currently been placed under house arrest with Secret Service officers standing guard around-the-clock. Papuc is suspected of being the head of one of Europe's leading drug running cartels, Tiraspol Times marks. Investigators uncovered a cartel-like operation where high ranking Moldovan police provided protection to drug smugglers by ensuring the safety of the transportation of narcotics through the country.
The arrests of three high-ranking Ministry of Interior officers reveal police involvement in an EUR 10 mln drug bust aimed for the European Union involving 200 kg's of heroin in Moldova. The heroin was en-route from Afghanistan, using Moldova as an entry-point to Europe. Moldova borders the European Union and a visa free regime is currently being re-established with Romania, which Moldova was a part of until 1940.
The arrested officers are indicted for protecting drug shipments bound for Europe, and they are currently said to be cooperating with investigators. According to sources close to the investigation, they had pointed to their boss, Gheorghe Papuc, Minister of Interior of Moldova since 2002, as the ring leader of the operation, Russian TV program Vesti reported.
.Shortly after he took office, the press revealed that Gheorghe Papuc used fake university certificates to pad his resume, including one which allegedly had him graduate from university with a law decree at age 38. Two Moldovan newspapers, “Kommersant Moldovi” and “Accente”, were closed by the government after publishing details of the fake certificates. According to an independent journalistic investigation by the Pro TV channel they were purchased by Papuc to advance his career. Truthfulness of the published facts have been confirmed by deposed Minister of Security, Tudor Botnaru.
Papuc was investigated in 1995 for forgery. According to documents made public by Pro TV, Papuc also committed other crimes, he reportdely used to take possession of construction materials, confiscated armament, accompanied cargo vehicles for a charge etc. Having a number of passports on him, he conducted illegal operations with real-estate goods and automobiles. Moreover, "he owned 4-5 real-estate properties and 3 automobiles at the same time under different names”, according to written information resulting from an investigation by the FSB, Russia's Federal Security Service.
A biography placed on the Moldovan government's official website claimed that Papuc holds three university degrees. This section of the biography of Gheorghe Papuc disappeared from the Moldovan government's website overnight. A former English version of the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has also been removed. Moldovan police arrested three of their own members on charges of smuggling heroin, the Infotag news agency reported.The suspects face accusations of attempting to move more than 200kg of heroin with a street value of $US15 million ($A16.38 million) from Turkey into the European Union.Moldovan border police uncovered the narcotics concealed in bags of beans inside a micro bus driven by a Turkish national.
Moldovan Interior Ministry security forces had been providing the courier with armed protection, according the report. The ministry among other agencies controls the country's police force.The three suspects were in detention in a Chisinau jail pending the setting of a court date.Government prosecutors intend to argue that the three accused officers answered to and had been reporting regularly to Interior Minister Georgy Papuk, the country's top policeman, according to the report.
Papuk has not yet been charged but has received instructions not to leave the country and to remain in his home, the report said, citing an unnamed official in the SIB, Moldova's national intelligence agency.Interior ministry officials contacted for comment said they could neither confirm nor deny the Infotag allegations.The announcement of potential criminal charges against Papuk, the head of the interior ministry since 2002, came ten days after the country's cabinet handed in its resignation in a government reshuffle.Papuk, one of the most experienced officials in Moldova, had been described in local news reports as likely to retain his position in the new government or be appointed to an ambassador's post in Western Europe.