Bulgarian Fugitive in 18 Human-Trafficking Deaths Arrested in US

Trifonov was arrested after federal law-enforcement authorities determined he had been living in the Seattle area. File photo

A convicted Bulgarian fugitive and human trafficker, responsible for the deaths of 18 Sri Lankan nationals who suffocated in the back of a cargo truck in 1995, has been arrested in Kirkland, local media reported.

The Bulgarian had been working there as a long-haul trucker, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, as cited by the Seattle Times.

Members of the Marshals-led Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force arrested 58-year-old Plamen Vladimirov Trifonov last week, according to a federal court docket.

He is being held pending a Nov. 1 extradition and detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate  Judge James Donohue.

Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal James Adkins, who commands the task force, said Trifonov was arrested after federal law-enforcement authorities determined he had been living in the Seattle area. Adkins said Trifonov immigrated illegally to the U.S. in 2005 and was arrested by U.S. Immigration authorities in 2006. Trifonov was facing deportation, and Adkins said “nobody had a clue” that he had been convicted in 2002 and sentenced to eight years in prison in

Bulgaria. At the time, Adkins said, it would not have mattered since Buglaria and the U.S. have only had an extradition treaty since 2009.

The court documents indicate Bulgaria first contacted the U.S. State Department about the extradition in May.

The complaint, relying on documents from Bulgaria, alleges that Trifonov was stopped in July 1992 attempting to cross into Romania from Bulgaria at the Vidin checkpoint. Customs officials noticed a faulty seal on a truck supposedly containing electrical wiring, and then an officer caught sight of a person “visible through a slit in the truck’s canvas covering.” Officials found 23 undocumented individuals in the truck, according to court documents. Trifonov was detained, the complaint says, but later released.

Three years later, in July 1995, Trifonov again drove to the Vidin checkpoint, this time in a truck carrying “sundry plastic items,” the complaint says. The truck was allowed to pass, and Trifonov allegedly drove it to the Romanian city of Karansebes, where he loaded 40 Sri Lankan nationals into the cargo container. On July 13, Trifonov drove into Hungary, the documents say.

The truck was found abandoned later that evening with 18 bodies inside. According to the documents, the container grew so hot that the passengers had tried to puncture a hole in the roof.  The complaint alleges that Trifonov discovered the bodies, abandoned the surviving passengers and hitchhiked back to Bulgaria.

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