12 Sri Lankans Arrested in Romania for Drug Trafficking, Including Deadly Overdose Case

Romanian police and DIICOT prosecutors have launched an investigation into a criminal organization composed of 12 Sri Lankan nationals residing in Romania with work permits since 2024. The group is accused of forming an organized criminal group involved in trafficking risky and high-risk drugs, as well as complicity in high-risk drug trafficking that resulted in a death.

Authorities allege that since at least June 2025, the group has been systematically obtaining material benefits by selling drugs in Bucharest and the Ilfov county. The organization is described as having a structured hierarchy, managing multiple residences for drug storage and distribution. They allegedly coordinated the supply and distribution of illicit substances, including within parties catering to their community.

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From the criminal prosecution documents, it emerged that, at least since June 2025 until the present, in Bucharest municipality and Ilfov county, an organized crime group has crystallized and acted, consisting of 12 members, persons of Sri Lankan origin, workers with work permits on the territory of Romania since 2024, for the purpose of obtaining material benefits from the systematic sale of risky and high-risk drugs.

One specific incident under scrutiny involves a private event held on the night of June 29-30, 2025, which was attended by over 200 people. During this party, a member of the group allegedly sold a cocktail of high-risk substances, including cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and ketamine, to a young man. This led to his death from cardiac arrest due to the depressant effects of the drug combination on his central nervous system.

During the investigation, law enforcement seized various quantities of illicit substances suspected to have been sold by the group in Bucharest and surrounding areas. These include cannabis, cannabis resin, cocaine, ecstasy tablets, and methamphetamine. Interrogations are ongoing at the DIICOT headquarters, with support from the Gendarmerie.

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In this context, one of the members, on the night of June 29 to 30, 2025, allegedly organized a private event with over 200 participants, including members of the criminal group to which he allegedly belonged, where risky and high-risk drugs were sold, a situation that resulted in the death of a young man, who died from cardiac arrest consecutive to the depressant action on the central nervous system of a cocktail of high-risk substances (cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and ecstasy-type derivative and ketamine).