Bulgaria Hands over to Italy Another Group of Card Fraudsters

The special police operation codenamed "Shock" far resulted in nearly fifty arrests and claims of police brutality. File photo

Bulgaria extradited to Italy on Tuesday a second batch of members of a large international ring of credit card fraudsters, who were nabbed at the beginning of July in a special police operation code-named "Shock".

The group included nineteen Bulgarians, who were among the 47 suspects detained on European arrest warrants in Bulgaria last month.

The news comes just days after the Bulgarian authorities extradited a group of another thirteen suspects to Italy.

The suspects have allegedly stolen more than EUR 50 M from EU citizens' bank accounts.

The special police operation, code-named "Shock", was launched in the small hours of July 6 on Bulgarian territory and abroad.

It was conducted in close cooperation with Europol and the US Secret Service and at the request of Italy in connection with an uncovered drug crime group trafficking drugs and cars stolen from the EU to Bulgaria, as well as involved in financial crimes.

"Shock", ordered and headed by the Interior Ministry's Chief Secretary Kalin Georgiev, was carried out in Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv, Burgas and Blagoevgrad, under the supervision of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office.

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