Notorious 'Hamster' Busted in Bulgaria for Plotting Crime

Alleged Bulgarian mobster Anton Petrov aka "The Hamster". Photo by dnevnik.bg

Alleged Bulgarian mobster Anton Petrov aka "The Hamster" was arrested by police in the capital Sofia on Tuesday, according to a local media report.

Petrov, along with his driver and two other individuals, was nabbed for "plotting a grave crime," dnevnik.bg says, citing its own sources.

In May, reports surfaced that Petrov may be plotting the assassination of controversial judge Vladimira Yaneva, Chair of the Sofia City Court (SCC) and close friend of Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

Anton Petrov is among the individuals accused in the so-called "Octopus" trial.

The detainees in the "Octopus" case were initially charged with organizing prostitution, drug trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, tax fraud and embezzlement.

In the summer of 2010, the prosecutor declared that it was impossible to solve the case with one trial and opened two trials against a total of 25 defendants, deploying a team of three prosecutors.