Expert: PAS-Controlled Law Enforcement System Is Collapsing

Sergiu CEBAN

A series of high-profile incidents in recent months has clearly demonstrated the scale of degradation that has affected our law enforcement structures at all levels

On March 23, Maia Sandu chaired a meeting of the National Security Council focused on the risks associated with cross-border crime. The very fact that the country’s top official is compelled to personally engage in addressing issues such as smuggling, drug trafficking, and human trafficking speaks volumes. It amounts to an implicit acknowledgment by the state that the law enforcement system is no longer coping with the growing challenges. Following the meeting, Maia Sandu acknowledged that cross-border crime in the country is increasing and becoming one of the key threats to national security. Among the main causes is the war in Ukraine, which has led criminal networks to reroute their operations through our territory. It is known that around half of human trafficking victims are recruited via social media. However, this growing phenomenon is also the predictable result of years of erosion of law enforcement institutions, which have proven unprepared for threats of this nature. Several high-profile incidents in recent months have clearly shown society that behind the appealing slogans about the “European path” and “reforms” lies a harsh reality. Today, our law enforcement agencies are mired in corruption, intertwined with the criminal underworld, and have turned into instruments not for protecting citizens, but for personal enrichment. In late March, the information space was shaken by a scandal that exposed the depth of corrupt decay within the law enforcement system. Officers of the National Anticorruption Center (NAC) detained a prosecutor and several police officers from the National Investigation Inspectorate (INI) on suspicion of extorting a $400,000 bribe in exchange for “favorable decisions” in a money laundering case. The reaction of the police community in this case was particularly telling. Dozens of officers from the same unit gathered outside the courthouse to support their colleagues. Almost simultaneously, reports emerged that all officers of the unit had allegedly submitted resignation requests in an organized protest against the actions of the anticorruption agency. According to them, the detentions were carried out unlawfully and without evidence, with the accusations based solely on the testimony of a single figure in an international criminal case. Interior Minister Daniella Misail-Nichitin was quick to reassure the public, stating that “everything is under control”, the unit is operating at full capacity, and its officers constitute a cohesive and professional team. However, the image of dozens of uniformed state officials publicly expressing solidarity with officers detained on bribery charges is no longer merely an issue of a single unit. It is evidence that a system of collective cover-up has taken root within the police. April brought another scandal, exposing the complete ineffectiveness of the border and migration control system. It was revealed that Denis Kapustin, the leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, who is fighting on the side of Ukraine and is banned from entering the Schengen area, was able to enter Moldova without hindrance. While in the country, he took part in filming an interview at the State University, and then left the country just as freely. This time, the reaction of the Interior Minister became a textbook example of bureaucratic complacency. The only statement she managed to produce was that “Kapustin entered and exited the country legally”. This implies that a person banned from entering the EU due to extremist activity was nevertheless treated as a lawful visitor by our border police. This naturally raises the question: what is the purpose of databases, international alert systems, and interagency data exchange at all? Or does Chisinau, if Kyiv insists strongly enough, simply comply without hesitation? At the same time, it is noteworthy that the main disputes (possibly deliberately, in order to divert public attention) did not focus on the obvious failure of border control, but rather on who approved the use of the university as a filming location. Incidentally, just in the past week, due to the border service’s unwillingness to admit a number of Russian actors and performers into Moldova, concerts by Diana Arbenina, Laima Vaikule, Andrei Makarevici, Artur Smolyaninov, as well as Kazakh stand-up comedian Nurlan Saburov, were cancelled. Apparently, they were considered more dangerous than Kapustin. One cannot ignore the high-profile case of kindergarten teacher Ludmila Vartic, who died in March this year after falling from the eleventh floor of a residential building. The suicide hypothesis was almost immediately presented as the main version, and within days of the tragedy, public discourse was filled with statements from human rights organizations about domestic violence and psychological abuse allegedly exerted by her husband, Dumitru Vartic, who held the position of vice-president of the Hincesti district from the ruling party. For this reason, the scandal immediately took on a political dimension. PAS excluded Vartic from its ranks, and Maia Sandu criticized the local administration and the district hospital. All of this would have looked like an appropriate response from the authorities, had it not been for one detail: in the autumn of the previous year, Ludmila Vartic had already attempted suicide and was hospitalized after drug poisoning. However, that incident was not reported to law enforcement agencies, although the law explicitly obliges medical staff to inform the police about such cases. Another unseemly episode was the fact that on the day of Ludmila Vartic’s death, a police patrol stopped her husband and, at his request, issued a traffic violation report in the name of the woman, who was already deceased at that time. Moreover, according to the family’s lawyer, the deceased’s clothing disappeared from the case materials without any formal seizure protocol. In addition, the case records indicate a lack of coordination between the police and the prosecutor’s office, as well as procedural violations during the questioning of Ludmila’s minor daughters. In other words, the investigation appears to have initially focused on the most convenient version of events rather than on establishing the truth. As a result, the family obtained permission for the exhumation of the body only a month and a half after her death. The Vartic case became not only a story of clear domestic violence involving a member of a ruling party official’s family, but also a reflection of the complete failure of the law enforcement system: from patrol officers willing to issue a fine to a deceased person at the request of a suspect, to prosecutors who fail to ensure even the basic preservation of evidence in a criminal case. Last week, the country was shaken by the news of the disappearance of a minor girl, a case that further added to the overall bleak picture. Sofia Cebotari was found on the side of a road in a critical condition, allegedly as a result of exposure to narcotic substances. However, it was the reaction of medical staff and the police that caused the greatest public shock. When her relatives filed a report of abuse, law enforcement officers refused to accept it, instead insisting on a forensic medical examination, for which the child had to be transported to Chisinau, as no signs of a crime were identified during the initial examination. This episode once again demonstrated what the police at the grassroots level have become. Today, it is a structure whose main task is to find ways to avoid extra work, evade responsibility, and preserve its own bureaucratic comfort, especially on the eve of holidays. Ultimately, if the state is no longer even capable of protecting a child from violence, the conclusions that follow are deeply troubling. The cases listed are, as the saying goes, only the tip of the iceberg of the degradation that has affected our law enforcement structures at all levels. Representatives of the ruling regime acknowledge that the relevant services lack equipment, personnel, and qualifications. However, behind all these cosmetic explanations lies a harsh reality in which illegal schemes operate, and those who facilitate them do so either with the tacit consent or direct involvement of individuals in uniform. The current authorities have developed a convenient response pattern to every scandal: first public condemnation, followed by a rapid demonstration of measures taken, the exclusion of the responsible individual from party ranks, and then complete silence and inaction. However, this can no longer continue. Systemic problems are not resolved through isolated dismissals or high-profile press conferences. They require genuine кадровая work at the ministerial level, independent judicial oversight, as well as real reform of the prosecution service and the police.