Romania’s intelligence service (SRI) issued a late-Monday warning about how citizens can be recruited for sabotage attempts. The alert, reported by Mediafax, follows the identification of members of a sabotage network said to have operated in Romania and across the European Union.

According to SRI, recruitment usually takes place on social networks. It can begin with a cash offer for an apparently harmless task — watching or photographing sites. Tasks can then escalate toward destruction, arson or even assassination, and a refusal can bring pressure and blackmail.

The service says networks especially exploit financial vulnerability, addictions or criminal records. To hide identities and movements, members often use transport, lodging and payment methods registered to other people, plus communications via third-country SIMs and encrypted messaging apps.

SRI stresses that these indicators must be assessed together and in context: on their own, they do not show that someone is involved in sabotage. The message is preventive guidance for the public, not an inventory of successful attacks.

In the same context, SRI and DIICOT said two Belarusian citizens and one Ukrainian are under investigation for involvement in a sabotage network; authorities say they set the fire near the Carfil arms factory in Brașov. SRI attributes coordination of the network to the Russian Federation and mentions targets such as arms plants and military facilities used to train Ukrainian forces, without publishing a detailed list of sites in Romania.

Source: SRI, semnal de alarmă referitor la recrutarea pentru tentativele de sabotaj | Mediafax