Bulgaria Police Slams Hard on Mobsters

Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov warned that new special ops are in store for Bulgarian-bred mobsters. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's commandos are to launch a special operation against home-bred 'mutri' (Bulgarian mobsters), announced Tuesday Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

Tsvetanov pointed out that police raids will be targeting organized crime groups and not the country's oligarchs.

“Bulgaria's problems in the last 20 years stem from the state's close connections with the underworld,” stated Tuesday Tsvetanov, adding that if there had been effective legislative and punitive institutions at the dawn of democracy in Bulgaria, today, the country's home-bred mutri would not be white-colored successful businessmen.

During his official visit to the Bulgarian sea capital Varna, the interior minister explained that the 'Jellyfish' special ops are going smoothly and there may be a follow-up depending on the investigation.

The 'Jellyfish' special operation was launched in April when the Varna Municipal Chair, Borislav Gustanov was arrested over alleged abuse of taxpayers' money.

Borislav Gutsanov was arrested alongside the Director of the Varna municipality ‘Autotransport’ Department, Pencho Penchev and Yana Krusteva, the Department’s Chief Accountant.

Businessman Daniel Slavov aka Dido Dunkata was also taken into custody after being arrested in his own Hotel 'Capitol'.

The arrests came on allegations of a number of crimes, including the masterminding of a crime gang, including high-ranking officials, embezzlement and malfeasance in office, forging of documents.

In May a second part of the operation followed in which the Varna City Hall was searched for documentation related to the draining of the City Hall and of taxpayers' money since September, 2008 through foundations working on Roma integration.

Over the past few months, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry made headlines with a number of anti-mafia operations with codenames such as the Impudent, Octopus, Spongers, Terrorists, Jellyfish, Registrars, among others.

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