FRENCH POLICE BUSTS BULGARIAN ID FORGERS

The French authorities raided a lab specializing in the fabrication of fake Bulgarian, Romanian, Portuguese, and former Yugoslav Republics’ IDs, the French Le Figaro informs.

The criminal network operated in the departments of Val-de-Marne, l'Essonne and la Seine-Saint-Denis, near Paris.

French police believes that the skillfully made fake IDs were used by many Eastern European emigrants in the Paris region to illegally receive social assistance and live on welfare.

On Friday, 8 of the forgers faced the judge in Créteil, southeast of Paris, and were charged with the manufacturing and use of fake IDs and assisting the illegal entry and stay of foreigners in France.

The illegal lab was discovered by authorities Wednesday in an apartment in Vitry-sur-Seine, near Paris. The criminals are said to be mostly Romanian and Moldavian citizens, who also made fake university diplomas, labor contracts, insurance policies and invoices.

In addition, the criminal network dealt with theft of alcoholic beverages with a supermarket security guard as accomplice.

The group is alleged to have been managed by Eastern European mafia structures, Le Figaro writes.

ITALIAN POLICE ARREST SUSPECT IN BULGARIAN WOMAN PADUA MURDER

The police in the Italian city of Padua have arrested the alleged killer of the Bulgarian woman, Albena Petrova Birdi.

The news was reported Saturday by the Italian daily Corriere del Veneto.

The woman’s body was found in an advanced stage of decay in a drainage channel in Padua on the morning of October 20. A post-mortem examination of the body, conducted by Padua’s police forensic doctor revealed that the woman had died as a result of blows inflicted to the left side of her skull.

54-year-old Antonio Prandato, who lived in a trailer in the small town Galzignano Terme was detained over suspicions he killed the 35-year-old Bulgarian in his car.

Italian police say the woman was a prostitute and this is how she ended in Prandato’s car. The man hit her with an unidentified heavy object and then threw the body in the drainage channel. The murder happened in September, Italian authorities inform.

Prandato tried to conceal the evidence, but was unable to completely clean the car seat soaked with the victim’s blood. A DNA probe of the woman matched the blood in the car.

The motives for the crime remain unclear, ranging between an arguement over illegal drugs gone bad, a ritual murder of a prostitute or jealousy over the fact Albena Birdi was seeing other men than Prandato.

KIDNAPPERS RELEASE SON OF BULGARIAN BUSINESSMAN

The 22-year-old student Rumen Guninski has been released by his kidnappers late Sunday night.

This has been reported by the bTV channel citing Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, who said that Guninski Jr was in good health.

The son of wealthy businessman Rumen Guninski Sr was kidnapped in public in the Studentski Grad Quarter in Sofia exactly 40 days ago.

"I can only confirm this information, and ask you to leave to work," the Chief Interior Secretary Kalin Georgiev told the bTV channel later Sunday night.

It is still unclear whether the young man’s family paid a ransom for his release.

BGN 20 000 STOLEN IN BULGARIA CURRENCY EXCHANGE ROBBERY

BGN 20 000 were stolen in an armed robbery at a currency exchange in the southern Bulgarian border town of Svilengrad.

The raid happened at 4:50 am Thursday as two armed men broke in a local currency exchange using a metal pipe, and threatened the cashier.

The 23-year-old woman was so shocked she failed to press the panic button in order to alert the police. The case is under investigation.

BULGARIA POLICE COME ACROSS "FORGOTTEN" MAFIA BOSS WANTED IN FRANCE

The Court of the southern Bulgarian District of Haskovo has issued an order for the permanent detention of Deniz Turkmen who is the brother-in-law of “legendary” Bulgarian mafia boss of Syrian origin, Filip Naydenov, aka Fatik.

Filip Naydenov – Fatik was was killed in an AK-47 raid on a central boulevard in Sofia in 2003.

Deniz Turkmen was arrested in the southern Bulgarian town of Svilengrad while he was on a train entering Bulgaria from Turkey on Sunday according to a European Arrest Warrant issued by the District Court of Marseille, France.

Turkmen is wanted by the French authorities over frauds, and is also wanted by INTERPOL. He is believed to have been the head of an organized crime group involved in the trafficking of stolen luxury cars, including three cases in which Bentley cars were rented, their documents were forged, and they were exported and sold in Turkey.

Upon his arrest, Turkmen presented an Irish passport on the name of Dimo Tshondiya. He told the police he came to Bulgaria because he wanted to see his children.

Turkmen was deported from Bulgaria in 2001 as a threat for the country’s national security, and was banned from entering it again. Turkmen is alleged to have been involved in illegal arms and drug tracking in Bulgaria.

He is the brother-in-law of Filip Naydenov – Fatik, and the son-in-law of Fatik’s father, Ismet Shaban. Ismet Shaban is known to have come to Bulgaria in the 1960s with his family and to have helped the so called “State Securty”, the secret police and intelligence of communist Bulgaria, to set up channels for the trafficking of Captagon pills, drugs, and arms to countries in the Arab world. This was part of the “secret trade” of the Bulgarian communist regime.

As a result, Shaban’s family enjoyed a number of privileges in communist Bulgaria. After the end of the communist regime, Shaban’s son, who took the Bulgarian name of Filip Naydenov, is said to have inherited his father, and much of the already “privatized” secret trade of the former communist regime, and to have been involved in dealings with all major organized crime groups in the country. He was brutally murdered on the Gotse Delchev Blvd in downtown Sofia in 2003 by AK 47 Kalashnikov shooters.

Fatik’s brother-in-law, Deniz Turkmen, is going to remain in the arrest until the Haskovo Court rules on the request for his extradition to France.

4 bulgarian MPs exposed in touch with shady 'businessman'

Four former Bulgarian Members of Parliament were exposed Wednesday to have been in contact with notorious “businessman” Krasimir Georgiev, aka “Krasio the Black”.

This was made public by Yane Yanev, Chair of the Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Committee, who said three MPs from the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) and one from the Bulgarian Socialist Party had made calls and exchanged SMS Text messages with Krasio. Some of the messages contained directions for 'lobbying' on some issues.

The Krasio affair started after in October it became clear that ‘Krasio’ was a ‘piggy bank’ who is alleged tot have offered magistrates to secure their appointment to high ranking positions through the vote of the Supreme Judicial Council in exchange for EUR 200 000 in cash.

The scandal has so far triggered heated arguments and several resignations after the Chief Prosecutor earlier revealed the names of 13 magistrates and prosecutors, whose phone logs showed they had been in touch with Georgiev. Later, the Judicial Council announced that a total of 31 magistrates had been in contact with Krasio.

According to the data presented by Yanev Wednesday, the MPs in contact with Krasio in 2008 and 2009 are Erdoan Ahmedov, Kasim Dal, and Lyutvi Mestan from the DPS (Mestan is the Deputy Chair of the party), and Kiril Dobrev from the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

The data came from an inspection of the phone address book of Krasio’s mobile phone requested by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office.

The last names of magistrates who were in contact with Krasimir Georgiev are to be announced on Thursday, November 19, during the meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council.

Dimitar Ivanovski, a former Deputy Minister of Finance in the Stanishev government who was in charge of the Central Finance and Contracts Unit, i.e. in charge of EU funds absorption, and officials from the Presidency are also among the contacts in Krasio’s address book.

According to Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Valeri Parvanov, a total of 1 040 number were found in Krasio’s address book. Most of them belong to various firms. There are also some numbers that are recorded without any names.

Yanev said he had demanded a number-by-number inspection of the address book including of key figures from the “gray economy” such as “Zhoro the Head”, “Zhoro Insa” (Georgi Samuilov), or Ivan Sapard Kasim, whose names were found in the phone book. But in Yanev’s words, the rest of the Committee has rejected his motion.

Former cop: Bulgarian sailors get EUR 1 000 from drug traffic

Bulgarian sailors get paid about EUR 1 000 on average for trafficking small quantities of drugs.

This has been announced by Kalin Mihov, a former Deputy Director of Bulgaria’s unit for fighting organized crime, GDBOP.

Mihov told Darik Radio that the Bulgarian sailors are usually recruited by smaller-scale drug producers and traffickers in various ports in Latin America to become part of trafficking channels for smaller shipments.

In contrast, the large drug cartels organized their own transport for drug shipments above 100 kg.

On November 14, the Bulgarian ship “Lilyana Dimitrova” was detained at the Argentinian port of San Lorenzo because five packets of heroin were found in its engine room.

Several months ago three Bulgarian sailors from the Svilen Rusev ship were arrested in Denmark with 23 kg of cocaine.

bulgarian credit card data thieves hold university degrees

The eight Bulgarians who have been busted over a scheme for stealing credit card information in Austria and Poland are highly intelligent and hold university degrees.

This has been announced Wednesday by the Plovdiv Regional Prosecutor Ivan Daskalov as quoted by Radio Plovdiv.

Six Bulgarians were busted in the southern cities of Plovdiv, Yambol and Burgas, and two more were arrested in Poland Tuesday in a joint operation of EUROPOL, and the police authorities in Austria, Bulgaria, and Poland.

Prosecutor Daskalov said it was still unclear how much money the group managed to steal through its complex credit card info theft scheme. The group had been followed by the police around Europe for months.

The boss of the organized crime group is 37 years old and is from the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv.

The Bulgarian police have seized a mass quantity of electronic equipment including readers and matrices for their building, digital micro-cameras, external hard disks, skimming devices.

The police also found two labs for the creation of skimming devices located in the Plovdiv District. None of the detainees is reported to have had any criminal record before their Tuesday’s arrest. The investigation continues.

PalFreeman court case set to continue december 2

The case for the defense will begin on December 2 at the Municipal Court of Sofia (SSC), in the ongoing murder trial of Australian Paul “Jock” Palfreeman.

Polfreeman’s defence request for a new fifth expertise to establish the condition of Monov after a probable consumption of alcohol, was rejected by the magistrates on the grounds that this had already been established with previous expert testimony.

The fatal stabbing occurred in Sveta Nedelya Sofia square on December 28, 2007. Antoan Zahariev, Monov’s friend, was also severely wounded in the incident.

Palfreeman stands accused of the murder of Monov and of the attempted murder of Zahariev. The families of the victims have requested compensation of EUR 230 000.

At a previous court hearing in January, Polfreeman had denied both charges, and said that he had merely tried to defend himself from a group of men who attacked him.

He had admitted that he had a knife on him, and that he had taken it out to protect himself and two other friends of his.

Under Bulgarian legislation, if proven guilty, Polfreeman may be jailed for at least 15 years, but he can extradited to Australia to serve his sentence there.

Medical specialists have determined that the death of Andrei Monov resulted from a sudden, strong knife stab, according to the conclusive medical expert reports submitted to the court. The reports clarified the type of wounds and the way they were inflicted.

In an earlier court session, expert Antoan Dalukov had explained that the video surveillance cameras in the center of Sofia had not managed to record the moment of the murder.

The court case began in May 2009, and have been postponed several times, because witnesses had failed to turn up, and with delayed presentation of expert testimony and reports.

Bulgarian police prevent bank theft by shooting at robbers

Officers from the police station in the north west Bulgarian village of Hairedin foiled an attempted robbery of a local branch of DSK Bank early on Wednesday.

The bank’s security system was triggered at around 4.30 am. Two policemen who went to the scene in response discovered three men inside the bank and another two waiting outside for them.

The disguised robbers ignored the policemen’s warning to freeze; instead, they threw a metal bar at one of the armed officers, who fired off a few rounds, the Vratsa branch of the Interior Ministry has announced.

Nothing was stolen from the bank, according to the police.

The robbers and their vehicle were later detained by special police forces, on the road between Vratsa and Byala Slatina.

Child shot dead in bloody outburst in Yambol

A woman and a man were wounded and a child was shot dead shortly after 6 pm Wednesday in the southern Bulgarian city of Yambol.

A 53-year-old man, whose name is reported to be Tenyo Popov, got in fight with his uncle in the village of Kozarevo, and shot him leaving for the city of Yambol.

As he was driving he shot at a woman and a child who were in front of an apartment building in the Hale Quarter.

The 1,5-year-old boy died on the way to the hospital. The mother and the shooter’s uncle are in a critical condition in hospital.

After shooting at the woman and the child, the man turned back and headed for the village of Kozarevo but crashed on the way. The police found him in a coma and he died later in the local hospital.

The reason for his actions are still unclear. He is not known to have taken any drugs or drunk alcohol, and does not have registration with any mental institution. The incident is under investigation.

The relationship of the mother and the child to the shooter has not been announced yet but Chief Secretary of Interior Ministry, Kalin Georgiev, the crime might have been committed out of jealousy.