The Moldovan police announced the disclosure of the activities of the group, the members of which are suspected of bullying minors, including testing psychotropic drugs on children. The website Publika.md reported about it.
According to the police, the suspects removed 14 disadvantaged teenagers aged 12-17 from Germany.
Parents were told that their children were participating in a reeducation program funded by a German non-governmental organization.
“Under the terms of this program, children had to be in an unusual environment, so they were taken away from their families. The parents themselves issued powers of attorney for the members of the criminal group,”explained Yuri Podarilov, deputy head of the Center for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova.
The criminal group is believed to have operated since 2006. The minors were taken to Crimea, and after its annexation to Russia, they were taken to the territory of Moldova through Odessa.
“They were brought to Novi Aneny and Criuleni, where they were forced to work in the fields and take care of animals. And, worst of all, children were tested with drugs that had an effect on the central nervous system,”said the head of the anti-trafficking department of the General Prosecutor's Office of Moldova, Eduard Bulat.
According to him, if the children refused to work, they were subjected to physical measures. “The children were tortured, they were tied to a chair, their fingers were twisted,” Bulat said. At the same time, parents were allowed to see their children, but meetings were organized in luxuriously furnished apartments.
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Currently, minors have been released and are under the care of the state.
“They really need medical help, they have acute mental disorders, behavioral disorders, breakdowns, and some have deep depression. We do not exclude that this is caused by the effects of drugs,”explained Podarov.
According to him, psychotropic drugs were imported into the country illegally, some of them are not registered in Moldova.
The head of the group, a 32-year-old resident of Kherson, was detained. According to the investigation, the criminal group consisted of five people. To search for all suspects, the Moldovan police turned to law enforcement agencies in Germany and Ukraine for help.