Macedonia cracks down on criminals forced home by pandemic

 From Balkan Insight. 

As COVID-19 restrictions compel members of Romania’s top crime gangs to head home temporarily, officials are using the opportunity to seize as many of them as possible.

The massive crackdown was announced early on Wednesday. Soon after the nightly curfew enforced by the government to limit COVID-19 infections was lifted, the media reported hundreds of raids across the country, targeting alleged sex and drug traffickers and migrant smugglers as well as racketeers, money launderers, tax dodgers and cyberfraudsters.

One law enforcement operation has served to dismantle a crime syndicate that trafficked young Romanian girls to Western European countries, where they were sexually exploited in brothels. The group started off more than a decade ago, recruiting victims from prisons. They lured them on social media, often starting romantic relationships with the girls, or promising fake jobs.

 

Another set of raids targeted a crime gang that supplied the Austrian sex market with Romanian girls, including minors. To recruit their victims, they also used the so-called “loverboy” method, which involves seducing the victim to gain her confidence before exploiting her. Austrian and EU law enforcement and judicial authorities cooperated with Romania in this case.

 

Among those to be brought to book are other human traffickers, child pornographers and a group of internet scammers who defrauded over 2,000 victims abroad of more than a million euros.

https://balkaninsight.com/2020/11/12/romania-cracks-down-on-criminals-forced-home-by-pandemic/