Prosecutors from Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) carried out dozens of searches on Tuesday, June 30, in a case involving a network accused of exploiting, over the past six years, hundreds of vulnerable or mentally ill people in Bihor County, western Romania.
According to DIICOT, over 2,200 vulnerable persons passed through centers controlled by the group in the last 6 years. Around 401 died, and another 413 were found during the searches. Around 200 of those found had disabilities.
The exploitation of the victims reportedly took place under the cover of a humanitarian association, Dumbrava DPG “Dumnezeu Poartă de Grijă,” according to News.ro.
The association, led by a 55-year-old man, together with three other suspects, “misled donors, relatives, and other persons interested in providing care services, to obtain significant sums of money from donations, sponsorships, contributions, as well as pensions, disability allowances, social benefits, fuel aid, funeral aid, and other income or social benefits due to the victims,” prosecutors stated.
According to the investigators, the network obtained RON 13 million (EUR 2.48 million). The official charges concern the formation of an organised criminal group, continued human trafficking, and complicity in continued human trafficking.
The criminal investigation documents showed that between 2020 and June 2026, the leader of the organised criminal group, with the support of members, recruited, received, and sheltered hundreds of highly vulnerable persons, individuals with psychiatric disabilities who could not defend themselves and could not express their will, and who were kept in a state of dependency and subjugation.
“The injured persons, brought from multiple hospital units and social assistance directorates in several counties, were placed in buildings located in the areas of Holod, Ceica, Tinca, and Lăzăreni communes, under the appearance of providing specialized care services, treatment, and social assistance by the group leader,” the same source stated. The man did not have any legal right to provide such services.
According to the same source, throughout the entire period, the victims were kept in a state of dependency and subjugation, without being provided with the minimum conditions necessary to protect their health, dignity, and physical and mental integrity. They did not receive constant and adequate care according to their medical condition and psychiatric diagnosis, were not permanently supervised, and the necessary medication for their conditions was either not administered or was administered improperly, intermittently, without respecting medical indications, and by unqualified and insufficient staff.
Investigations also showed that victims who died in spaces owned by the organized criminal group were buried on land located near the Greek-Catholic cemetery, and the funeral aid payments were collected by the group.
Romania’s interim labor minister, Dragoș Pîslaru, said that the victims will be relocated to suitable centers. “The priority is that we take over these people who have been identified as being in these buildings with unlicensed, unaccredited services. Things that are completely outside the legal framework,” he said, cited by Euronews Romania.
Alexandra Zară, a representative of Romania’s ANPDPD (National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), said that multidisciplinary teams are assessing each case to determine what type of support and social services are needed. She warned that the spaces where the victims were found are not licensed residential centers for providing social services.
The owner of the care homes denied any wrongdoing.
Back in 2023, a similar network targeting the elderly was discovered in Bucharest and nearby counties. The scandal led to the resignation of then labor minister Marius Budai and a comprehensive review of similar centers around the country, although the checks seemingly missed the centers in Bihor.
(Photo source: cateyeperspective|Dreamstime.com)
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