WHO IS WHO: Bulgaria's New Customs Agency Head Vanyo Tanov

Bulgaria's newly appointed Customs Agency head, Gen. Vanyo Tanov. Photo by BGNES

Major-General Vanyo Mitkov Tanov is a former head of the National Service for Combating Organized Crime.

Tanov was born on September 22, 1958, in the northwest city of Montana. He graduated in 1981 from the Ruse University with a degree in engineering. He joined the structures of the Interior Ministry in 1985 as a police officer in Ruse.

In 1991, he became the head of the grave offenses department at the Regional Police Directorate in Ruse. In 1995, he became the director of the Second Police Department in Ruse, which achieved the best results in the country, and led to Tanov's early promotion to a major.

In 1998-1999, Tanov led the investigation of five murders in Ruse, and after the cases were solved, he was promoted to colonel.

In 1999, he completed a course for training police head a the Interior Ministry Academy.

In 2002, Vanyo Tanov was appointed the head of the Regional Interior Ministry Directorate in Ruse. In 2004, with a Presidential decree he became Major-General of the Interior Ministry structures.

In 2005, Tanov was placed in charge of the National Service for Combating Organized Crime but resigned in June 2007 over personal reasons.

On April 13, 2008, several hours before the then Interior Minister Rumen Petkov resigned over the leaking of classified information, Tanov told the media the Bulgarian state was collapsing, and that institutions were failing.

In October 2007 local elections, Tanov ran for Mayor of Ruse from the GERB party of present PM Boyko Borisov but lost., and was elected a city councilor instead.

Tanov has specialized at Secret Service in Washington, DC, and in the Netherlands. He is married with two sons, and has one grandchild.

 

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