Editing Marku Ionuț (section)

== Criminal activities ==
[[File:Marku's Luger P08.png|thumb|Marku's Luger P08, photographed on an unknown date]]

Post-collapse investigations attributed at least 68 confirmed murders to Marku. Internal accounts placed the number above 100, although the additional killings were not individually confirmed. Marku personally killed captives and people against whom he held personal grievances. He also ordered Bucharest Butchers members to murder rivals, witnesses and associates who refused his demands. Captives held by Porno Bucharest were beaten or tortured to obtain information, force cooperation or punish escape attempts.

Through Porno Bucharest, Marku abducted and trafficked women and children from homes and public places. His crews also targeted nightlife venues, where victims could be removed without immediately alerting their families. On 22 July 2010, Petrescu organized the abduction of two women from [[Sector 5]] and moved them to a safe house in [[Popești-Leordeni]]. On 9 June 2012, he seized four women from central Bucharest for forced use in recordings controlled by Marku.

Petrescu used recorded material to extort a nightclub owner in [[Sector 3]] on 27 January 2013, then supervised the movement of trafficked women from [[Giurgiu]] into Bucharest on 16 May 2014. On 2 November 2021, he detained at least six women at an [[Ilfov County]] recording site and punished staff members who attempted to release them.<ref name="dorin-crimes"/>

Marku personally sexually abused captives held inside the apartment complex, including minors. He forced children to smoke cannabis before exploiting them in its detention and recording chambers. Some captives were drugged before being recorded. Others were threatened or assaulted until they complied.

Marku used the recordings to blackmail victims and their families, while separate copies were used against criminal associates who attempted to resist him or report the department.<ref name="pb-operations"/><ref name="pb-trafficking"/> Porno Bucharest also supplied captives for closed sexual theatre performances.<ref name="pb-tanoa-weo"/> Marku used science-fiction themes during some performances inside his own complex and forced captives to wear alien costumes fitted with artificial tentacles while he watched.

He sometimes killed the participants afterward with a ceremonial sword. He also denied treatment to captives suffering from serious infections and kept them confined while their conditions became fatal because he wanted to watch them deteriorate.

The department stored its recordings on large collections of hard drives. Marku ordered copies to be kept at separate properties so that a raid or seizure would not destroy the complete archive. He distributed material through criminal channels and used the income to pay personnel who answered directly to him.

Marku also dealt with [[Arbëror Shpend Leka]], the leader of [[Harku i Drenicës]]. Leka's network had financed Bucharest Butchers weapons purchases since 12 January 2001 and opened the Drenica–Bucharest ammunition line on 14 June 2003. After the establishment of Porno Bucharest, Marku used Leka's network to obtain weapons and forged transport papers. The same routes moved Tanoan surplus equipment into Europe through [[Durrës]] and depots in Kosovo.<ref name="leka-routes"/>

By the early 2020s, Marku was using the money and personnel controlled by Porno Bucharest to interfere in other Bucharest Butchers operations. The department became his private power base and brought him into direct conflict with members who remained loyal to [[Andrei Ionuț]].

=== China operations ===
Ionuț began spending extended periods in [[China]] in 2010 and 2011, initially to obtain recording equipment and storage hardware for Porno Bucharest. The trips also brought him into contact with Chinese businessmen and criminal networks, and he became fluent in Mandarin during this period. In 2011 he met [[Wang Yucheng]], a wealthy businessman involved in electronics and logistics who helped him obtain equipment and arrange shipping. Wang also introduced him to private business gatherings. He learned of Ionuț's involvement with Porno Bucharest and trafficking during the early years of their relationship and continued assisting him. By 2014, Wang was himself using Ionuț's network, while Ionuț compensated him with money and privileged access to it.

Ionuț established a more permanent operation in [[Shenzhen]] in 2014. While buying equipment in [[Huaqiangbei]], he met [[Liu Weimin]], whose import-export company, Dragon's Gate Logistics, was being used as a front for trafficking girls and young women out of China. Later that year, Ionuț began buying victims from Liu for Porno Bucharest, including minors as young as 14. Some were presented as orphans, while others were controlled through debt. Ionuț paid partly in euros and partly with recordings produced by Porno Bucharest, which Liu distributed through an underground pornography network in China. In 2015, Ionuț began supplying recordings involving victims trafficked through Liu's network to the [[Féminas-abteilung Nacional de Eef Paap]] (FNdEP). He received payments from the organization and gained protection and access to Tanoan contacts.

The relationship with Liu deteriorated in 2017 after Liu delivered fewer hard drives than Ionuț had paid for. Ionuț retaliated by ordering two of his men to sexually assault Liu's 16-year-old daughter and record the assault, then sent the recording to Liu as a threat. He subsequently took control of most of Liu's contacts and distribution routes in Shenzhen. Liu continued to make introductions, but Ionuț's associates increasingly dealt with the more valuable trafficking routes and buyers themselves. By 2018, Ionuț had acquired a house in Shenzhen and was using the city as a permanent base for his activities in China.

Wang also introduced Ionuț to senior political circles. In 2018 he brought Ionuț as his guest to a private gathering attended by senior Chinese politicians and personally vouched for him. Ionuț used the gathering to offer those present direct access to his pornography and trafficking network, after which senior national officials began dealing with him personally. The relationships eventually included more than four members of the [[Politburo Standing Committee]], although the exact number was never established. Vice Premier [[Xu Guoqiang]] was among those involved. Ionuț also dealt with Minister of Public Security [[Zhang Weitao]] and former minister [[He Qiang]]. He paid senior officials in Beijing for protection, while some of the same officials sought access to the network for themselves.

By 2020, Liu had been reduced to a minor role and was no longer necessary to Ionuț's operation. On 9 August, Ionuț sent [[Praetor Lupu]] to kill him while he was picnicking with his family in a park. Lupu shot Liu in the back of the head and also shot his son and mother. He then abducted Liu's daughter and took her to Ionuț's house in Shenzhen, where Ionuț kept her and raped her on multiple occasions. Her later movements were never established. Ionuț abandoned the property in 2024 as his operations began to collapse, and she is believed to have escaped around this period, although neither the date nor her subsequent whereabouts are known.

After Liu's death, [[Chen Guowei]], one of his former associates, took over the day-to-day management of the Shenzhen operation. Chen had previously handled buyers and payments for Dragon's Gate Logistics and remained in charge locally while Ionuț retained overall control. By mid-2024, Ionuț had begun dismantling the operation and paid a local Chinese contact to kill Chen. The remaining trafficking and distribution contacts were transferred to FNdEP intermediaries during the second half of the year. They continued operating until the collapse of the [[Tanoa Einsatzgruppen]] in November, after which a smaller remnant survived under former FNdEP personnel.

From Romania, Ionuț tried to recover money and records left in Shenzhen, but the former intermediaries refused to cooperate and kept what remained under their control. He continued to threaten them, although by this stage he had little ability to enforce his demands overseas. In 2025, investigators searched his abandoned Shenzhen house and recovered recordings together with documentary records of payments and trafficking. The surviving network operated largely without Ionuț until investigations connected to the [[Beijing Tribunal]] began, and the tribunal later identified him as the principal foreign organizer of the network.