"[1][2] A participant in various actions taken against armed or peaceful anti-communist groups, Pleșiță began his career as a Romanian Communist Party cadre, and rose through the ranks of the Securitate while holding various political offices in the Interior Ministry.

[2][3][4] According to Gheorghe Florescu, a black marketer of coffee and memoirist who met Pleşiţă during communism, the future general had exceptionally lowly origins, being "the son of a farm hand with a two primary classes education and an illiterate peasant woman, who hailed from a family of outlaws in Târgoviște area.

[6] In parallel, having attended night school classes in Marxism-Leninism (which the regime had declared equivalent to university-level studies), he completed a one-year course in the Soviet Union.

[3][4][6][7] According to Gheorghe Florescu's recollections, Pleșiță was also discreetly establishing himself as a presence on the criminal underground, by tolerating or endorsing illicit dealings in commodities.

[5] These activities, Florescu claimed, were shared among members of the communist elite, among them his fellow Securitate operative and future rival Ion Mihai Pacepa—while the latter secretly represented a pro-Western line within the intelligence and underworld environment, Pleșiță's dealings were reputedly directed toward Soviet and Middle Eastern connections.

[5] Also in 1977, Pleșiță was involved in the violent inquiry of writer Paul Goma, who had attempted to organize a local dissident movement and was eventually expelled from the country.

Vianu also recalls having refused to make any such promise, but notes that the interest his case had already generated in France made "Pleșiță and his kind" fear taking more severe action against him.

[9] At least 600 miners were interrogated; 150 penal dossiers were opened; 50 were forcefully hospitalised in psychiatric wards; 15 were sentenced to correctional labour and actually imprisoned, while a further 300 or more (who were considered dangerous) were internally deported.

[2][3][4][6][7] In tandem, he served as First Deputy Interior Minister to Homoştean in several new Romanian cabinets,[4] and rose to the position of substitute member of the Communist Party Central Committee.

[3][4] Following the overthrow of Ceaușescu in the December 1989 Revolution, Pleșiță, who was passed into reserve with the rank of lieutenant general (1990),[3][6][7] was indicted for complicity in the RFE bombing.

[3][11] In a 2008 documentary film produced by Alexandru Solomon, Carlos himself recalled having met and grown fond of Pleșiță, and indicated having received two Soviet-made rifles as presents from his Romanian connection.

[6] In later statements, Pleșiță came to allege that Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization and former collaborator of Carlos, was a homosexual, and physically attracted to (or even involved in a sexual relationship with) the Venezuelan terrorist.

[11] In parallel, the CNSAS government agency (tasked with exposing secret Securitate files), officially attested that Pleșiță had been involved in political policing of the Romanian population, but its power to render such verdicts was being contested by other court decisions.

[3][10] Radio Free Europe's Șerban Orăscu, who joined the Institute in this gesture, suspected an attempt on the part of post-communist authorities to hide Pleșiță's involvement, arguing that several pages had been purposefully removed from his own Securitate file (which he had recovered from the CNSAS).

[6][7][11] He withdrew to the outskirts of Curtea de Argeș, where he lived in the same house as his son,[11] and was said to have been frequently visited by another suspected Securitate torturer, Gheorghe Enoiu.

[3] Similarly, România Liberă daily referred to Pleșiță as "the perfect example of a Securitate boss, who openly assumed his actions of political policing, and even murders committed by the communists, but who lived a carefree existence in post-1989 Romania.

"[2] At times, his statements defined the Securitate as a body working "for the country's progress",[3] and he personally urged former subordinates to assassinate "traitors who defected to the enemy.

According to Pleșiță, "When leaving, the presidential train also had aboard the elements necessary for producing the nuclear bomb, which Ceaușescu had sold to his North Korean friend.

[4] During his funeral service, held at the Capu Dealu Romanian Orthodox church in Curtea de Argeș, the SRI, obeying the family's wish, is said to have prevented reporters from witnessing the event.