A 37-year-old Romanian police officer was arrested after he attempted to pick up a drug package he had ordered over the dark web from Belgium. The police officer is accused of importing ‘high-risk’ drugs into Romania from the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium. The officer was arrested together with his girlfriend, with whom he allegedly engaged in cultivating cannabis which they sold on a wholesale basis.
According to a statement by the Department for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), the 37-year-old Deputy Agent who was the head of Răducăneni police station, Christian Danu, and his girlfriend, Diana Lacramioara Muntean, allegedly engaged in the consumption and trafficking of drugs acquired through the darknet. Danu, in particular, is accused of trafficking MDMA, ecstasy, and ketamine ordered from the darknet into Romania. Muntean, on the other hand, is accused of being Danu’s accomplice in the cultivation of cannabis in a rural area in Vaslui County. They sold the cannabis on a wholesale basis in Lasi. DIICOT investigators disclosed that they began the investigation against Danu and Muntean in January 2018 after they allegedly seized 11.7 kilograms of cannabis packaged in vacuum bags from an apartment they believed was being used by Muntean.
On the night of January 31st, Danu and Muntean visited a post office in Vaslui to pick up a drug package. As Danu was signing for the receipt of the package into his custody, the DIICOT agents ambushed and arrested him. The agents confiscated the package and later disclosed in a press statement that the package contained 168.7 grams of ketamine and that it had been shipped from Belgium. After the arrest, Danu was placed under police custody for 24 hours as the police and prosecutors questioned him. The DIICOT agents then searched the premises used by Danu and Muntean in Lasi and Vaslui where they seized undisclosed quantities of ecstasy, cannabis, MDMA, and ketamine.
During the questioning, DIICOT allegedly established that Danu used the darknet to order drugs mainly from Germany and the Netherlands. They also determined that Danu had allegedly ordered 100 pills of ecstasy via the darknet from Germany in May 2018. Danu also disclosed that he engaged in largescale cultivation of cannabis with help from Muntean.
DIICOT’s statement disclosed that after the questioning, the prosecutors gathered enough evidence to use against Danu and Muntean in the Vaslui Tribunal of Rights and Freedoms. The judges of the Tribunal considered the evidence and placed Duna and Muntean on a 30-day arrest. The arrest was issued to prevent the two from interfering with further investigations on their drug trafficking operation.
It is believed that Danu may have engaged in drug trafficking to earn more and supplement the low income he received from police work. According to reports, Danu had sued Lasi County Police Inspectorate asking for higher salaries for the police. It is believed Danu sued the Inspectorate around the same time he began ordering drugs from the darknet. His attempt to win the police a higher pay was defeated in October 2018. Danu, however, filed an appeal against the decision and was set to appear in court days after his arrest.
After learning of Danu’s arrest and the offenses he is accused of, Chief Commissioner Adrian Stoian told the press that Danu, who had just been promoted to the head of the Răducăneni Police station, was immediately suspended from police duty and his position left vacant. Stoian also disclosed that Danu had been recruited into the police force from an external source and was made the head of the police station as an attempt to rid the police system of corruption. If found guilty, Danu will be expelled from the Romanian police force.