BEING chauffeured through the streets of London in his top-of-the-range Mercedes, crime boss Ion Gusan must have thought himself untouchable.
Holed up in a plush apartment in Canary Wharf living a secret life on the run, he was left stunned when his limo was boxed in and he was dragged from his seat by cops – ending three years on the run and a reign of terror that involved rocket launchers, hitmen and a vast smuggling empire.
The arrest was a major coup for the National Crime Agency – Britain’s version of the FBI – for The Sun can today reveal the full story of Gusan’s vast criminal network, whose tentacles stretch across Europe.
The organised crime gang specialised in selling Russian weapons including rocket launchers and are believed to be behind the London hit on a businessman known as the ‘Black Banker’.
Gusan, 54, born in a tiny Moldovan village, is said to be the head of a major Eastern European crime group called ‘The Patron’ with links to the Russian mafia.
He was a wanted man in France after being sentenced in his absence last May for armed robbery, extortion with violence, racketeering, smuggling, money laundering and being part of an OCG.
A source told The Sun: “Gusan has a fierce reputation.
“Nobody ever thought the law would catch up with him because he was so powerful. Victims are celebrating his demise but it also clears the way for rivals to fill the gap.”
Gusan, known as ‘Nicu Patron’, has spent almost 25 years evading justice despite the work of intelligence officers in Moldova, Romania, Italy and France.
According to intelligence, Gusan was made a ‘thief-in-law’ – a vor-v-zakone – which is the highest criminal ranking in ex Soviet countries, with the power over who lives and dies within their network.
He was accused by Moldovan prosecutors of hiring a hitman to take out a wealthy Russian businessman German Gorbuntsov, known as the Black Banker, in London in 2012.
German, then 46, was shot six times with a Markarov semi-automatic pistol as he emerged from a taxi outside his service apartment in Canary Wharf.
The businessman, who fled to the UK in 2010 as he faced fraud and money-laundering charges in Moldova, miraculously survived the murder attempt thought to have been ordered by powerful enemies in Moscow. He is now in hiding.
Hitman Vitalie Proca, 46, flew to Russia after the shooting and his family claimed he was never in London, but CCTV images caught him wearing jeans and a leather jacket taking the escalator at Canary Wharf tube station.
Cops in London and Moldova said Proca had been hired by Gusan and his gang as ‘brokers’ to carry out the assassination but that the order came from Russia.
Moldovan cops claimed wiretaps proved The Patron group discussed how German had ‘cheated’ them out of £330million and in February the order was given to ‘disappear’ the banker.
Six months after shooting German, gunman Proca, who had already served time in his home country for beating to death two women in a house robbery gone wrong, killed an innocent man in a second botched hit in Bucharest.
In a grotesque case of mistaken identity the killer believed he was shooting the leader of a rival Romanian gang. He is now serving 12 and a half years for the murder. It is not known if he will ever face justice for the London shooting.
Gusan’s Patron group is also accused of trying to sell Russian arms to the highest bidder.
As Ukraine fought for independence from Moscow in 2014, a member of the OCG called Ion Druta tried to persuade a reporter from the Organised Crime and Reporting Project to act as a go-between to sell weapons as he languished in jail for a triple murder.
They included a tank missile system, AK-47s and a rocket launcher.
His opening gambit to the journalist was to send a picture of Al Pacino from the movie Scarface emptying an automatic weapon.
Despite links to high-profile crime across Europe, Gusan has continually escaped lengthy jail sentences.
Mayhem in Moldova
In May 2023 cops in Moldova put out an arrest warrant for Gusan for his part in allegedly organising an £800,000 blackmail plot alongside a leading athlete Ion Soltoianu.
He was also quizzed over his role in the Black Banker shooting but no charges were ever laid.
Shortly after he moved to Romania where he was accused of setting up two illegal cigarette factories. In 2016, he was given 14 years in jail but was freed after a retrial.
He then landed up in France where he went on the run before being caught in London in December last year as he travelled in a limo with his family.
A source in Moldova told The Sun: “The Patron was at its strongest in the 90s but isn’t so visible in Moldova as they move to other countries to carry out activities.
“There are huge problems with corruption here which the authorities are trying to tackle but it allows networks like this to come in and out of Moldova and essentially base themselves here.
“The country has been used in money laundering schemes emanating from Russia and its oligarchs.
Moldova serves as a transit state for weapons
Expert Cathy Haenlein
Expert Cathy Haenlein, director of organised crime and policing studies at Royal United Services, said Moldova has long been a hub for illegal markets.
She said: “It plays a critical and fluid role in a range of cross-border illicit flows – linked to its strategic position at the edge of the EU and its borders with Ukraine.
“Moldova acts as a source and transit hub for a range of illicit markets, including human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and flows of contraband and counterfeit goods – many moving onward into the EU.
“Its proximity to Ukraine means that Moldova serves as a transit state for weapons moving out of the country.
“Entrenched institutional vulnerabilities and corruption complicate efforts by domestic authorities to disrupt these organised criminal activities.”