by Cristina PastiaOn Sunday, September 12th 2021, the Border Guard in Dorohoi shot several fires attempting to catch a few people who supposedly smuggled cigarettes at the Ukrainian border. “Taking advantage of the terrain’s layout, the people retreated towards the village of Corjăuţi”, although they were shot at like it was the Kabul airport. They did not catch the smugglers, who were faster than the bullet, but “captured” 9.000 cigarette packs.
Northern Moldova, “duty free” for smugglers
The news were short, the enthusiasm of the media who transmitted it not very big, and it vanished faster than the smugglers out the bullet’s way. Nobody seemed to wonder how 6 packages with 750 cigarette packs each ended up in the forest near Dorohoi. The fact that Northern Moldova is a “duty free” area for smugglers is already nothing special. It is simply ridiculous to ask how so many smugglers enter and exit to their heart’s content using the Romanian border that should be the best guarded. If the Ukrainian border is not guarded, what exactly are we guarding and why? The border between Gorj and Hunedoara?
Going back, two days later, on Tuesday September 14th 2021, an AN-2 plane was captured by the policemen in the Republic of Moldova after it had smuggled cigarettes into Romania. Keep in mind that the authorities in Moldova acted also because they had received the information from their counterparts in Ukraine! Also, AN-2 had stopped to refuel. Our neighbors in the North announced our brothers in the East that a plane full of cigarettes is about to fly into their airspace with destination to Romania. Like in the case of the one that came directly from Ukraine, a few weeks ago, the Romanian authorities have been informed after the cargo was delivered. AN-2 stayed, this time, no less than an hour in Romania’s airspace.
I only have one wish/ To see an F16 in flight!
As a consequence, a few weeks later, 2 civil planes enter Romania fraudulently, deliver the smuggled cargo and leave the airspace of the North Atlantic Association without problems. Not even the tridimensional radar we pay 1 billion euro for, not even the second-hand F16 planes we paid another billion euro for and not even the allies we ensure the Air Police with could not intervene.
Therefore, nothing stops illegal flights above Romania. Ukrainian smugglers enter and exit Romania easier than honest Americans do from Canada. What expectations are we supposed to have if 2 separatist plutons from regions Donbas or Donetsk decide to take refuge, with weapons and luggage in Fălticeni? We find out from the news, after a few days, and the reaction of the authorities will be the same: silence and indifference.
(an article by Edward Pastia)