Police arrested two brothers for allegedly burglarizing religious establishments in Montgomery County.
According to the Montgomery County Police Department detectives, 23-year-old Alex Dumitru and 18-year-old Natalian Dumitru were traveling up and down the East Coast, primarily targeting Buddhist temples.
Court documents say they are believed to be part of a Romanian organized crime ring.
On March 13, a blue minivan was seen in the parking lot of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Mosque in Silver Spring, Maryland. That same day, jewelry from a residence on the property was gone.
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The blue minivan was also seen on March 9 at the Zen Institute. That day a residence on the temple’s property in Germantown also was burglarized.
The search warrant, which resulted in the arrest of the two brothers, was served at their home on Prestwood Road in Catonsville.
A similar blue minivan was seen in security video at the Wat Thai Buddhist Temple in Silver Spring on April 7. On that day, $20,000 of donations and valuable papers were stolen from a safe in a monk’s room at the temple. No arrests have been made related to this particular burglary.
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“They steal my safe. They take the safe from my room … That's the donation money in the safe and I have some, many, documents in there," the monk said.
According to police, the suspects burglarize one house of worship and immediately go to another. Unknown individuals also burglarized the Noor Center Mosque in Germantown and another residence in Spencerville.
The brothers have been charged with first-degree burglary and were released on a $10,000 unsecured personal bond.
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