Bulgarian Police Aware of All Ringleaders in Country

Bulgaria's Chief Secretary of the Interior, Kalin Georgiev, says all ringleaders in the country are known to the police. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, announced Tuesday that 630 individuals are involved in organized crime and a total of 2 400 are known to the police as common criminals.

Tsvetanov spoke during a Parliamentary discussion dedicated to the dynamics of “constitutional crime” in Bulgaria in 2009 – 2010.

The Minister was backed by the Chief Secretary of the Interior, Kalin Georgiev, who confirmed that all ringleaders are known to the police.

According to data of the Interior, crimes in 2009 are up by 8%, compared to 2008 – a total of 123 000 registered criminal acts.

63% of the crimes in 2009 involved property theft – 9% more than 2008. There have been 6 highway robberies in 2009 and nearly 35% of the criminal activities involved fraud.

The auto theft is down, with Sofia still keeping the lead. Bulgaria also witnessed 9 explosions in 2009, but they have not been terrorist acts, rather a way to settle business relations that went sour, according to Georgiev.

On his part Tsvetanov reported white-collar crimes in the amount of BGN 520 M in 2009 and still-continuing police corruption.

Meanwhile, the Center for the Study of Democracy published an independent research, showing that there has not been a significant increase of crimes in 2009 and the forecast for a crime wave over the economic crisis failed to materialize, however, only 1 of every 5 criminal activities has been officially reported to the police.

According to the research, there is less drug trafficking, prostitution and theft of luxury automobiles, but cigarette contraband and credit card fraud are on the rise.

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