Additionally, Drăghici took precautionary violent measures against the emerging anti-communist resistance movement, particularly so in Timișoara Region (western Romania). On August 14, he ordered the police structures there to begin "the liquidation and destruction of gangs, bandits and runaways". On October 1, he promoted Pavel Aranici as head of the Ministry's "Gangs" section, whose initial task was uprooting the Banat Mountains partisans. Also then, the Interior Minister tackled the activity of those Romanian Social Democrats who had refused to align themselves with the communists. According to one account, he approached their imprisoned leader, Ioan Flueraș, promising freedom for him and all his colleagues in exchange for a public penance. Flueraș was killed in prison just days after, allegedly because he refused that bargain. Drăghici's term saw the prosecution of Oana Orlea and other teenagers accused of counterrevolutionary activities. However, the Minister was also in contact with self-exiled musical celebrity George Enescu, Orlea's uncle, and may have hinted that Orlea could be released should Enescu return home.