Romanian police officers and their partners in Schengen Area member states have identified over the past week 198 individuals, 56 cars 20 documents and one license plate flagged in the Schengen Information System (SIS), the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police (IGPR) informed Agerpres on Sunday.

As many as 132 persons signaled by the SIS were located in Romania from July 17 through 24, the IGPR mentioned.

Over the aforementioned period, Romanian police officers enforced 15 European arrest warrants; they found 68 individuals wanted for participation in judiciary procedures and 2 persons reported missing by Schengen partners.

The other way round, foreign partners identified on their territory 66 individuals wanted by Romanian authorities, following data exchange through the SIRENE office of the International Police Cooperation Centre of the IGPR.

From the police cooperation standpoint, Romania is a de facto member of the Schengen Area since November 5 2010, the IGPR asserted.

Interior Minister Oprea: International partners recognize professionalism of Romanian Border Police

The professionalism of the Romanian Border Police is internationally recognized, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs Gabriel Oprea said Friday on the celebration of the Border Police Day.

“The Romanian Border Police is an institution that I personally appreciate as extremely specialized and efficient. These two features define your activity, the activity of the Romanian border police officers. (…) The professionalism of the Romanian Border Police is recognized not only by our colleagues with the other bodies in the national security, defence, public order and national security sector, but also by our international partners from both the European Union and NATO,” said Oprea.

He mentioned that in the border check points work is based on Schengen rules; access exists to the Schengen databases and the joint contact centres cooperate, which allows considering Romania a de facto member of this area.

“We have demonstrated, thanks to the entire national security system, especially through what we did lately, that Romania is a safe country that is fulfilling all of its international missions and is respected by our international partners,” the deputy prime minister added.

During the event, the award ‘Border Police Officer of the Year’ was bestowed on the Police Chief-Commissioner Daniel-Ghita Nistor of the Sighetu Marmatiei Territorial Inspectorate of the Border Police for refusing some significant amounts of money – 80,000 euros – offered as bribe by a criminal group, and to the Police Deputy Chief Agent Adrian-Neculai Pata of the Iasi Territorial Inspectorate of the Border Police for his contribution to dismantling a criminal network with illegal activities in smuggling excise goods.