Bucharest Court Places 14 Of 15 Weapons Heist Suspects In Preventive Arrest

Only one suspect, Adrian Preda, has been released.

The 15 people had been detained following hearings on Sunday at the headquarters of the Organized Crime and Terrorism Investigation Department (DIICOT).

Several of the members of the group suspected of stealing weapons from the military base late January 2009 are also under investigation on charges of international drug trafficking, according to a press release issued Monday by the Romanian Police and DIICOT.

Sunday morning, investigators raided 45 locations and detained dozens of people for questioning. Later in the day, authorities found around 30 of the 62 weapons stolen in January.

The weapons were found to be functional and unused, as they had been stolen without their ammunition, according to Police department inspector general Petre Toba.

Toba said the perpetrators had no intention of firing the weapons, as they had not purchased ammunition even by the time the weapons had been found. Toba said the theft's motive has not been ascertained yet, but DIICOT head Codrut Olaru said investigators are considering two possibilities.

One is that the weapons were to be traded for heroin; another is that they would outfit the group which the DIICOT chief prosecutor said was inclined to acts of violence.

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