Moldova's Border Police said on 19 October that it had carried out two extradition rulings. This is not a new trial in Chișinău and not a Moldovan conviction. It is a handover, after months of provisional detention, to the states that asked for the men through INTERPOL.

The first man, 56, holds Romanian and Ukrainian citizenship. He was detained on 14 February 2026 at the Criva-Mămăliga crossing. Checks showed an INTERPOL alert for arrest and extradition over cigarette smuggling. On 15 October he was handed to Romanian authorities at Leușeni-Albița. The basis was a Chișinău Court ruling, Ciocana seat, made final by the Centre Court of Appeal.

The second, 36, a Kyrgyz citizen, was found on 17 May 2026 entering at Chișinău International Airport. The INTERPOL alert was for fraud. On 16 October he was handed to Kyrgyz authorities at the same airport, on an order of the same Chișinău Court, Ciocana seat.

The Border Police statement says both men were held in provisional detention. Extradition enforces a surrender order. It does not try the Romanian or Kyrgyz case on the merits. The names are not published.

Ziar.md repeated the same dates, the same crossing points and the same courts. A headline that leads with cigarettes describes only the first case. The second is fraud, not smuggling.

This is not an investigation opened today. It is not a prison sentence in Chișinău. It is the surrender of two men already in custody, on INTERPOL alerts, after Moldovan courts closed the extradition procedure.

Until a conviction in the country that asked for them, the facts remain those in the alert and the border statement: two men, two alerts, two handovers, on two consecutive days, 15 and 16 October.

Image: ru:User:Zserghei, Chisinau International Airport, public domain, Wikimedia Commons; the terminal, not the 16 October handover.

Sources consulted: Two men wanted by INTERPOL extradited from Moldova - Ziar.md; Two people wanted by INTERPOL extradited by the Border Police - IGPF.