Above the law?

Law enforcement sources and rights groups say the Tandarei gang is still active in Britain, France, Spain and elsewhere — often moving children from country to country.

“They continue to do what they’ve been doing for years and they seem to be above the law,” Gravett said.

A child rights expert who has followed the gang’s activity in France told BIRN that since 2004, between 200 and 300 children from Tandarei have been known to beg and steal in the Paris region.

French sociologist Olivier Peyroux has met around 50 of them in recent years while researching a book on child exploitation in Eastern Europe, with a chapter on Tandarei.

He said that after the joint British and Romanian investigation, the gang changed strategy: parents started to accompany their trafficked children a lot more to shield the ringleaders.

“Slowly, slowly they integrated the families into the network,” he told BIRN. “They somehow adapt to the investigators’ techniques and find a way to give the impression the family is exploiting their own children.”

Slowly, slowly they integrated the families into the network. They somehow adapt to the investigators’ techniques and find a way to give the impression the family is exploiting their own children. – French sociologist Olivier Peyroux

In Italy, police announced in May they had caught 40 people from Tandarei and the nearby town of Fetești suspected of involvement in more than 100 robberies.

Back in Britain, the Salvation Army, which helps adult victims of modern slavery, said it saw a big jump in the number of Romanians exploited last year. In terms of people referred for support, only Albanians and Vietnamese come in higher numbers.

In May, a British woman in the northern English town of Ashton Market, near Manchester, posted cell phone footage on a Facebook group set up to report crime in the area. In it, she accuses a young man and a young woman — presumed to be Romanian — of stealing perfume from her market stall.

The video was widely shared, along with a flow of xenophobic comments.

“Romanian piece of garbage,” wrote one social media user. “CLOSE OUR BORDERS, KICK THEM OUT,” said another.

Somehow, the video got noticed by people from Tandarei. Several of them posted humorous comments that suggested the alleged thieves were well known in the community.

Someone even tagged the young man, identifying him as a 20-year-old from the town who now lives in Germany and has done prison time in France.

Analysis of dozens of Facebook accounts from Tandarei shows that many young men — including some defendants in the case and their sons — are fond of livestreaming their lives. Some call themselves “mafia” and “boss” and boast about the luxury cars they plan to buy.

Other videos show Tandarei residents visiting relatives in British prisons. In one, five young men are seen drinking and listening to melancholy music, distressed that a cousin ended up in jail.

In another video, a woman whose son is convicted in Britain points to her purse and says she has “enough money to bury [pay for expensive funerals for] half of Tandarei”. She adds: “This is what it [really] means to be a mobster.”

Meanwhile, the appeal trial in Targu Mures grinds towards a conclusion. As of December 10, the court had held its eleventh and final hearing. A verdict is expected on December 23.

As in the first trial, the court has struggled to find witnesses. And even when they do, they are less than forthcoming.

During a hearing in September, prosecutors questioned a driver who had told police he drove Roma children from Tandarei across the border for two defendants. He backpedaled on his initial statement, denying he knew the accused and claiming not to remember much.

“I see you remember [only] what you want,” a judge snapped.

Judging by their social media posts, many of the accused seem unphased after almost a decade in court.

On the first day of the appeal trial, on April 24, one of the accused livestreamed a video of himself with several other defendants relaxing at a mountain resort 200 kilometres southeast of Targu Mures, just hours after they left the court.

They appeared to be in high spirits, as though taking a vacation. “Horses don’t die when dogs want them to,” one of them said.

In a parking lot of the resort, they honked their horns like revellers on New Year’s Eve.

At the annual fair in Tandarei in September, as people of all ages spun on merry-go-rounds and boys and men took turns testing their strength on punching bags, Titi arrived in a white shirt and cream trousers, wearing his signature white beret.

Accompanied by two women and two boys, he stopped near an inflatable slide branded with Tom and Jerry cartoon images. There, he talked to one of the boys, with the look of a grandfather giving life advice.

Then they all disappeared into the crowd.

Ani Sandu is a news anchor and editor at Romanian Public Radio and a reporter at large for DoR, a non-fiction quarterly. This article was produced as part of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, supported by the ERSTE Foundation, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. Editing by Timothy Large