The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS) announced that it will challenge the decision of the Ștefan Vodă Court by which the former ambassador to the Russian Federation Andrei Neguta was acquitted in the case of anabolic steroid smuggling, IPN reports.

When the case was sent to court in 2021, prosecutors asked the court to order the arrest, sentence the defendants to 5 and, respectively, 4 years in prison and confiscate the value of the Iveco truck (over 400,000 lei) by which the steroids were transported at the time.

The court decided in a different way. The former Moldovan ambassador in Moscow and the driver of the vehicle attached to the embassy – accused of attempting to smuggle steroids worth over 8.4 million lei out of the country to Russia in December 2020 – were acquitted by the Ștefan Vodă branch of the Căușeni Court.

The PCCOCS continues the criminal investigation against eight people accused in the case of attempted steroid smuggling (two of whom are wanted) – members of an organized criminal group.