BUCHAREST, March 29 -- Two Romanian gasoline smugglers attacked border police boats while crossing the Danube to Serbia, the government said Wednesday. Internal Affairs Ministry spokesman Vasile Vasilescu told United Press International that the smugglers were crossing the Danube at Moldova Noua, 248 miles (400 km) southwest of Bucharest in a boat loaded with gasoline cans.
They were spotted shortly after midnight and were stopped by a police patrol boat. The smugglers, armed with cudgels, rammed their boat into the police vessel and splashed it with gasoline, threatening to set it on fire, Vasilescu said. Summoned by gunfire to stop, the two smugglers dived into the water, as six other people watching from the river bank dashed in their boats to save them. Because of a United Nations embargo against Serbia for its support of insurgency in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, smuggling has become very profitable. Romanians reportedly have made small fortunes smuggling gasoline and supplies across the Danube in defiance of the border police. Border Police Col. Dumitru Mocanu told UPI it was the 19th smuggling incident reported in the area in the past year and the 16th reported at Moldova Noua. Mocanu said border police can only shoot when they are directly threatened, but he said that 'soon we might be forced to do that if things get out of control.' 'You cannot kill a man for carrying a few gasoline cans, so we armed our people with paralyzing spray,' Mocanu said. 'Moldova Noua is the hottest spot, because there are plenty of gas stations around and highly aggressive village people have specialized in smuggling gasoline across the Danube to neighboring Serbia,' said Vasilescu.
