Editing Oskar Dirlewanger (section)

=== 1980s ===
In 1980, the [[Tanoa Einsatzgruppen]] created [[SS-Großabschnitt Europa]] as its European regional command. The new office gave Tanoan officials a direct structure for European liaison work. On 25 February 1980, a Tanoan intermediary approached the Bucharest Butchers through a Rotterdam contact and offered cooperation with Dirlewanger. Dirlewanger refused the proposal at a meeting in Bucharest on 9 March 1980. He believed that Tanoan involvement would place the Butchers under outside command and weaken his control over the Ionuț family, the Tudor branch, and the Bucharest cash rooms.

Dirlewanger repeated the refusal on 17 October 1981 after a second approach came through a European contact linked to the Tanoan regional command. He issued an internal order stating that no Butchers member was allowed to accept Tanoan protection or pass information to Tanoan intermediaries without his approval. The order was enforced through [[Dumitru Ionuț]], who had become Dirlewanger’s main regional controller in eastern Bucharest. Dumitru controlled gambling rooms and debt collection sites that brought steady money into the organization.

On 18 October 1984, Dirlewanger gave Dumitru control over several safe apartments in eastern Bucharest after older Tudor-controlled houses became unreliable. The apartments were used for meetings, temporary detention, and money storage. Dumitru reported directly to Dirlewanger and became the main figure used to keep the younger Ionuț branch inside the Butchers structure. This change reduced the influence of Dumitru Tudor and marked Dumitru Ionuț’s rise from regional controller to senior Butchers commander.

[[Florin Ionuț]] became useful to Dirlewanger during the same period. On 12 June 1985, Dirlewanger ordered Florin to begin copying property notes and inspection schedules from municipal offices where he had access through lower-level administrative work. Florin did not command armed members, but he gave the Butchers information on housing files and inspection timing. Dirlewanger used this material to protect apartments controlled by Dumitru Ionuț.

On 9 May 1986, Dirlewanger ordered Dumitru to begin observing younger relatives before they were allowed near full Butchers work. The order was not a formal recruitment program. Dumitru brought boys from the Ionuț household near gambling rooms and collection visits so older members could judge whether they obeyed orders and kept silent. [[Petru Ionuț]], born on 7 April 1980, and [[Iakob Ionuț]], born on 12 September 1982, were still children, but the practice placed them inside the criminal environment long before they became active members.

On 3 November 1987, Dirlewanger promoted Dumitru to senior commander inside the Bucharest Butchers during a closed meeting at a safe apartment in Pantelimon. The promotion gave Dumitru direct authority over eastern Bucharest enforcement crews and placed him above the remaining Tudor handlers still active in the city. Dirlewanger chose him because Dumitru had kept the eastern apartments secure, collected gambling money without outside protection, and refused contact with Tanoa intermediaries after the 1981 internal order.

In 1989, Dumitru killed [[Lorena Cingolani]] inside the family home while Petru and Iakob were present. He later disposed of her body in the [[Argeș River]]. Dirlewanger did not remove Dumitru from the organization after the killing. He kept him in place because the murder left Petru and Iakob under Dumitru’s direct authority and made the household dependent on Butchers protection.

By the end of the 1980s, Dumitru was one of Dirlewanger’s highest-ranking men inside the Bucharest Butchers. His position came from the promotion of 3 November 1987 and from his control over eastern Bucharest. Dirlewanger used Dumitru as the main internal counterweight to Tanoan influence during the decade.