Romania seizes 9 tonnes of refrigerant from Turkey
12th March 2021
ROMANIA: Authorities in Romania yesterday intercepted a truck smuggling 1,300 cylinders of refrigerant from Turkey.
The seizure in the port of Constanţa Sud Agigea on the western coast of the Black Sea totalled 9 tonnes of gas, said to be worth approximately €184,000. The consignment was being carried on a lorry arriving by ferry from Turkey.
It has not been revealed specifically what refrigerants were involved but the Romanian border police claim, possibly incorrectly, that they were ozone-depleting. A video shows that at least some of the consignment was labelled as R404A, the high GWP but non-ozone-depleting HFC.
The officers were said to have acted on information supplied. Romanian newspapers have linked the seizure to actions by Romania’s Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) to dismantle a criminal gang involving Romanian and foreign police, customs officers and businessmen. Those involved are being investigated on bribery and smuggling crimes totalling US$500,000.
