​MOLDOVAN POLICE NEUTRALIZES GANG THAT WAS PLOTTING ATTACKS ON STATE OBJECTS

“A criminal community was formed in Balti city that was preparing attacks on five government facilities in Chisinau”, Colonel Gheorghe Cavcaliuc, Deputy Chief of the MoI General Police Inspectorate, stated at a news conference on Thursday.

He said that 13 people had originally planned to attack a military unit in Balti, to obtain weapons and free the prisoners from the local prison.

“They wanted to take control of Balti first, then the whole of the north of Moldova, and later on to try and attack government offices in Chisinau, taking advantage of current protests in the capital”, said Cavcaliuc.

According to him, 11 gang members were arrested during a special operation that involved over 100 officers. During searches police found guns, knives, a cylinder of tear gas, maps, including a Chisinau map, with marked places on it.

In his words, eight detainees expressed willingness to cooperate with investigators.

“Earlier, during evidence gathering, the investigators found that the criminal community members intended to destabilize situation in Moldova, by analogy with events in the Eastern Ukraine and to seize of power. By the way, two of 13 gang members have the Russian citizenship, and one the Ukrainian citizenship. The latter is a native of Donbass”, said Cavcaliuc, noting that the investigators have no evidence to link the gang members with some politicians of Moldova so far.

Infotag’s dossier: Exactly a year ago on November 26, 2014 Cavcaliuc's men arrested the ex-Communists Pavel Grigorciuc and Michail Amerberg, accusing them of preparing a violent seizure of power in Moldova. In May 2015, Grigorciuc and Amerberg were released under house arrest, and the case was not been yet considered on the merits by the court.

In May 27, 2015, Colonel Gheorghe Cavcaliuc and the Interior Minister Oleg Balan said at a press conference that “Molotov cocktails”, details for explosive devices production and mobile phones with the Russian SIM cards were found in two locations of abandoned buildings basements in Chisinau. The case was not submitted to the court.