Bulgarian 'Cocaine King' Trial Resumes in Italy
Crime | March 29, 2013, Friday // 10:18| views
Evelin Banev AKA Brendo was arrested in Bulgaria on May 16 2012 on suspicions of cocaine trafficking and money laundering both in Bulgaria and Switzerland. Photo by BGNES
A new session of the Court trial against the so-called "Cocaine Kings," including alleged Bulgarian drug lord Evelin Banev AKA Brendo, is taking place Friday in Italy.
Banev is charged with being the ring leader of an organized crime group dealing with illegal drug trafficking, financing cocaine trafficking, and trans-border organized crime.
At the beginning of March, Banev's 10-year-old daughter Lara was abducted by masked gunmen in the affluent Sofia suburb of Boyana. A 36-year-old bodyguard was shot twice in the back. Her whereabouts remain unknown.
Banev is being held in prison in Milan, Italy, where he was extradited after his arrest in Bulgaria last spring in a special police operation codenamed "Cocaine Kings," and is coming to Bulgaria only for the court sessions of the local trial against him.
According to various reports, the abduction was a warning for him to keep silent in the Milan Court. Lara's whereabouts remain unknown.
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