Romania collects over 170,000 US dollars from dismantling drug-trafficking ring

The Romanian government has received more than 170,000 US dollars via the National Agency for the Management of Seized and Confiscated Assets (ANABI) from the dismantling of a drug-trafficking ring that would smuggle illegal drugs into the US in exchange for money to support the Hezbollah terrorist group, the Romanian Ministry of Justice (MJ) reported on Friday.

According to an MJ press statement, the Government of Romania, through the Ministry of Justice-ANABI, collected over 170,000 US dollars impounded by the US Department of Justice and the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as a result of joint investigations carried out by US and Romanian law enforcement authorities.

"Police officers of the Organised Crime Directorate and the Special Operation Directorate, as well as prosecutors of the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism worked closely with DEA investigators in order to apprehend members of Romania-based criminal rings that would smuggle illicit drugs into the US to use the proceeds were to support the terrorist group Hezbollah. The Romanian authorities arrested the members of the groups, who were extradited and convicted in the US," reads the statement.

After the convictions, about 220,000 US dollars were recovered as proceeds of crime, with 80% of the amount transferred to Romania's Ministry of Justice-ANABI.

The Ministry of Justice informs that the amount collected by ANABI is to be transferred to the national budget as confiscated assets transferred to the private ownership of the state.