The operation took place under the supervision and guidance of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office.
Specialized Prosecutor’s office attracted to criminal liability two people for participating in organized criminal group for trafficking of heroin from Middle East countries to Western Europe through Bulgaria. Two other people who are involved in the group’s criminal activities were put on the international wanted persons list.
The leader of the group and a foreign citizen, permanently residing in Bulgaria, were detained on March 30, 2020 during a special police operation of GDCOC which took place in Burgas, Stara Zagora, Dimitrovgrad and Haskovo, carried out under the guidance and supervision of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office.
During the investigation of a truck parking lot in Haskovo, 72 kg of heroin for over 10 million BGN were found in a truck with Bulgarian registration and immediately seized. The heroin was intended for the European black market. The leader of the group S.A. was catched at the very moment of uninstalling the cache in the air bottles of the semi-trailer in which the drug was hidden. He had been convicted and already had criminal records for theft and drug trafficking.
On the same day, the foreign citizen was detained. His role in the group was to provide buyers for the part of the heroin which remained in Bulgaria and to finance that way future deliveries.
It was established that the drugs were loaded on trucks with installed caches in specific countries from the Middle East and arrived in Bulgaria via either by the land borders or by ferries to the Bulgarian ports. They were subsequently reloaded several times before being transported to their final destination – Western Europe.
The seized 72 kg heroin arrived at the port of Burgas on March 26, 2020 and were transhipped to several trucks in order to make it possible for monitoring by law enforcement agencies.
During the conducted searches and seizures at addresses in different occupied and used by the accused village places, evidence of their criminal activity was collected. For the needs of а deep and detailed investigation of the group’s activities, coordinated joint actions with partner services of several countries had been established.
The accused leader of the criminal group was detained for up to 72 hours. The Specialized Prosecutor’s Office is about to submit to the Specialized Criminal Court a request for measure of restraint “Detention in custody”. The other accused person was fined 20,000 BGN for participating in the criminal group.
