After a nearly six-month investigation, authorities launched 70 raids at border crossings and other sites in western Romania Tuesday and detained as many as 100 border police, customs officials and suspected smugglers, police and prosecutors said.
Those detained are suspected of smuggling huge quantities of cigarettes into Romania from neighboring Serbia, and face charges of bribery and facilitating smuggling, prosecutors said.
The raids — which forced the closure of several crossings on the Romanian-Serbian border — started at 6 a.m. and were conducted by at least 1,000 anti-corruption prosecutors, police and security forces, authorities said. Many of the suspects’ homes were also raided, they said.
Officials confiscated cigarettes worth 500,000 euros ($683,550 U.S.), they added, in raids that were the culmination of a probe that dates back to August.
Cosmin Stan, For CNN
