PM Orban: Police and Gendarmerie must strengthen fight against criminal groups

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Friday that the Police and Gendarmerie must intensify, "without hesitation", the fight against criminal networks.

"Minister Vela, (...) I want to encourage you to urge the Police and the Gendarmerie to strengthen the fight against criminal networks, without hesitation and with zero tolerance," said Orban, at the beginning of the Government meeting.

"We are keeping an eye on them," Interior Minister Marcel Vela replied.

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has called for a "very serious" assessment at the level of police stations and the replacement of bosses who do not take action against criminal networks.

"You must ensure a good collaboration with all the institutional factors that are involved in this effort, both from the effective knowledge of the criminal groups, and the collaboration with the Justice, with the prosecutors, with the courts, so that we are extremely efficient in any intervention, and where there are police chiefs and you can know that they are not taking action against these criminal networks, they must be changed immediately," he said.

The interior minister said several checks had been launched.

"Even at the level of the Municipality of Bucharest, the Control Body of the Minister is sent to clarify some aspects that have been highlighted in the last period," Marcel Vela mentioned.