EU Observer: Bulgaria's War on Crime
Views on BG | February 16, 2010, Tuesday // 14:14| views
Alexei Petrov, a former secret agent, is one of those arrested in the 'Octopus' police operation. Photo by BGNES
By Vesselin Zhelev and Аni Parmaksizian
February 16, 2010
When heavily-armed anti-terror police burst into Sofia's "Kama Sutra" striptease bar last Wednesday (10 February), they ordered everybody to lie on the ground.
The floor was instantly covered with nude female pole-dancers and their scared admirers. The former had a lurid story to tell about their side jobs as prostitutes and about hidden cameras recording sexual intercourse with clients in the bar's secret rooms.
Police dubbed the operation "Octopus" - after the popular Italian mafia TV series. Interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said it was the first ever genuine effort to unveil links between organised crime and high strata of power in Bulgaria.
The brothel raids led to one high profile arrest: businessman Alexei Petrov, a former elite police unit officer turned suspected mobster and recently exposed as an undercover police agent embedded with the underworld.
Mr Petrov, 47, who also holds a economics doctorate, was arrested on a long inventory of charges, including extortion rackets, illegal drug trade, bribery, running prostitution rings and money laundering. Media reports quoted police sources as saying he was at the top of a criminal pyramid which, among other things, blackmailed businessmen, and probably politicians, with footage from the brothels' hidden cameras.
International praise
It was the third consecutive police operation that the six month-old government of centre-right populist Boiko Borisov heavily publicised as a major blow against organised crime. The previous two, code-named "The Brazen" 1 and 2, ended with the arrest of more than 20 men suspected of extorting millions of euros in ransoms from families of businessmen they kidnapped over the past couple of years.
As "Octopus" was splashed across the front pages of all dailies, western ambassadors in Sofia showered Mr Borisov with praise. "The United States congratulates all law enforcement personnel involved in the courageous and professional actions they took in apprehending some of the most notorious suspected criminal figures in Bulgaria," US ambassador James Warlick said in a statement.
"This is a clear sign of the government resolve to stand up against organised crime and corruption," his British colleague, Steve Williams, told the daily, 24 Chasa.
Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels last Thursday (11 February), Mr Borisov indicated that "Octopus" was co-ordinated with western law enforcement agencies. But he declined to name which ones.
No verdicts
The criminal underworld has flourished amidst legal chaos and impunity during Bulgaria's 20-year post-Communist transition. The EU is still monitoring the country's justice and home affairs progress and has repeatedly urged Sofia to produce "convincing results" in the fight against graft and Mafia-like groups.
Despite the arrests however, Bulgaria still has not convicted any of the accused. Some of the "Brazen" suspects have been released on bail instead, prompting Mr Tsvetanov to lash out at courts and call for EU supervision of them. Brussels has repeatedly criticised Bulgaria for its inefficient and corruption-prone legal system.
Mr Tsvetanov cited a poll commissioned by 24 Chasa which indicated that three-fourths of respondents would support EU or US monitoring of proceedings and verdicts in Bulgaria's criminal trials. Supreme Court chairman Lazar Gruev dismissed the idea saying it would mean inadmissible pressure on his country's magistrates.
"It's a war"
"Octopus" included six more arrests among Mr Petrov's business partners. Prosecutors said on Friday they comprised a fairly diversified criminal group whose activities stretched from prostitution to siphoning money out of Bulgaria's largest iron smelter of Kremikovtzi, 10 km north of the capital, Sofia.
Police raided a total of three striptease bars in Sofia and questioned some 50 suspected pimps and 130 female strippers.
A major challenge the operation poses to Mr Borisov is his common past with Mr Petrov. Mr Borisov admits they had practiced karate together in their youth and later worked for the interior ministry, where Mr Borisov was chief secretary supervising the day-to-day work from 2001 until 2005. Media recalled their ties and rivalries in the early 1990s when both men had left the still unreformed police forces to start businesses of their own.
Following an information leak from a closed door parliamentary hearing in 2008, Mr Petrov was exposed as a secret informer of the State Agency on National Security. Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev said Mr Petrov had been involved in a number of anti-mafia operations. "We have no grounds to be displeased as far as we have worked with him," he said
Facing a preliminary court hearing on Friday, Mr Petrov complained that he was "a victim of political reprisal" and suggested Mr Tsvetanov could have misled Mr Borisov about his role. "Let the court decide," Mr Borisov said. "Everyone has another side. A lot of the evidence they found about Mr Petrov was surprising to me."
"It's a war," he added. "Who holds out, will win."
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