(27 Mar 2000) Romanian/Nat
Romanian police ended an unprecedented seven day raid on Sunday in a bid to 'clean' their streets of criminals.
It was organised by the Romania's Interior Ministry to reduce the country's crime rate.
And already it's been hailed a success, leading to hundreds of arrests and hundreds and thousands of U-S dollars going back to the country's bank accounts.
Night has fallen, but the work is far from over.
In Bucharest, on Sunday evening, there were more homes to be raided, more rooms to be searched, more arrests to be made.
Romania has declared war on crime in the capital, and beyond.
The country's Interior Ministry organised seven days of raids because it feared criminality had become a threat to the Romanian public.
The Ministry put police and gendarmes to work around the clock.
They made inquiries into tens of thousands of people and performed random raids on houses all around the country.
Street gangs, mafia groups, wanted criminals, prostitutes and pimps, car thieves, tax-evaders - they were all targeted, and in many cases caught.
Unofficial reports suggest police arrested thousands of prostitutes from around Romania and hundreds of criminals.
It's also believed they returned hundreds of thousands of U-S dollars to the Romanian Government bank accounts.
But not all the nation's law-abiders were happy about the tough new approach to crime.
Young Gypsy Rights Organisation, SATRA, took to the streets in protest on Friday, claiming the gypsy community was being unfairly targeted.
They claimed there was an assumption in Romania, that if you're gypsy, you must a criminal.
During a raid on a manufacturing plant in Bucharest, one woman expressed her anger at police by turning around and gesturing as if she were going to flash her bottom.
The seven days of raids ended on Sunday night.
The media are hoping to get a full briefing from police, with official arrest figures, on Tuesday morning.
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