2024-10-01 01:45:30
The name of suspected smuggler Nikola Nikolov shone in one of the major corruption investigations – according to him, a former head of customs, a father and a son who boasted of connections with ministers are still in custody. So far, most famously the poodle, photographed with tutus, for which it is not clear whose pocket they went to
Was the mysterious Nikola Nikolov-Pascal in our western neighbor for treatment in Serbia or with a smuggler with a little name Mirko? He was arrested on Friday in a joint police operation in Belgrade.
According to “24 Chasa” information, the wanted man was already sheltered in April by his friend Mirko, who was also involved in the trafficking of goods across the borders. According to the statements of his lawyer, Galya Georgieva, a few months ago before the court, he was undergoing treatment abroad, but she did not indicate where at that time. He knew they were looking for him, and he was going home. Then the prosecution asked the court to issue a European arrest warrant for the wanted Nikolov. After his arrest on Friday
an extradition procedure begins, which goes through the court
It depends on the magistrates there if and when the suspected smuggler Pascal will be handed over to us. The defendant for the bankruptcy of KTB, Tsvetan Vassilev, for example, has been in Serbia for 10 years and the court refused to hand him over to the authorities in Bulgaria.
63-year-old Nikola Nikolov-Paskal is the only defendant in the “Customs” affair who was not detained on April 3 of this year. Then, during an action by the National Security Agency and the Anti-Corruption Commission, the then director of the agency Petya Bankova and Haskovo businessmen Stefan Dimitrov and his father Marin, who is the former head of the Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture, were arrested.
Later, they also accused the chief secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Zhivko Kotsev, as a participant in their group. (Who are free and who are in custody – see below in the text.)
According to the prosecution, senior government officials helped Pascal’s smuggling channels,
and the mediators were father and son Dimitrovi. For contacts between all participants in the group, there are testimonies, chats from mobile applications, photos. Politicians got involved in the affair, both Asen Vasilev as finance minister and Boyko Rashkov as an insider. The two deny having committed crimes, and Rashkov claims that he met with father and son because they brought him information about buying votes as an interim minister in 2021. Photos from Stefan Dimitrov’s phone have appeared, which show how his dog brings bundles of money, and Delyan Peevski gave a new name to “We continue the change” – “the party of poodles”.
The arrests on April 3 coincided with the end of the assembly, in which the PP-DB, GERB and the still unified DPS took part. At the end of the 49th National Assembly, a temporary commission was active in the parliament to clarify the facts and the role of Asen Vasilev, which held 7 meetings in 20 calendar days.
Then it became clear that the Dimitrovs went to both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Finance many times
The criminal group in the customs, which grew into the Ministry of the Interior, is the first major case of the commission for combating corruption, which after March 1 of this year investigates the upper echelons of power. The operative work was done by DANS. Agents of the native FBI have been working on Pascal since the middle of 2022, when Kiril Petkov’s office was in charge. Then DANS acquired operational information that an organized criminal group with leaders Marin Dimitrov and his son Stefan was operating on the territory of the country. They were involved in smuggling and legalized their income by injecting it into the country’s economy. Their main role was to connect Bulgarians and foreigners who need a smuggling corridor through several checkpoints (Kapitan Andreevo, Lesovo, Kulata, Kalotina, Danube Most, Vidin and Oryahovo) with people in high positions in the Customs Agency. and “Border Police” who also work at the barrier.
According to the report of the chairman of DANS, Plamen Tonchev, to the deputies, Dimitrovi’s contacts were from the low to the high levels in the two institutions that control the goods at the checkpoints. Marin and Stefan Dimitrovi were close to Zhivko Kotsev from the time when he was the director of ODMVR – Sofia, after which he rose to the position of chief secretary.
DANS also identified their connections with the then director of the national police
Ventsislav Kirchev, with heads of regional directorates, with Petar Subev – a chief who is responsible for the aerogars in the Border Police. During the development of DANS, Subev even participated in a conference in Barcelona for Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen.
Stefan and Marin Dimitrovi were also close to Lilia Velinova from the national police. Through their contacts, the father and son influenced the bosses to hire personnel who would work for them. In addition to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Stefan and Marin Dimitrovi were found to be in close contact with customs chiefs. Especially with Tihomir Kostov, who is the senior inspector of the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing in the Haskovo region, from where they were both developed. In addition to Kostov, they were in regular contact with his colleague Teodor Ivanov. There were cases in which
customs officials gave Dimitrovi secret information about traffic channels they were developing
of goods and dangerous substances. In return, they counted on career growth. Due to the contacts of Marin and Stefan Dimitrovi with the senior customs officials from DANS, they began to eavesdrop and monitor them. That’s how they got to the information that the notorious Nikola Nikolov-Pascal has a major role in the smuggling channel.
According to DANS information collected over the years, Pascal is an unavoidable factor in the country and in the Balkans in the production and smuggling of cigarettes. He had the patronage of former and current bosses in the executive and judicial branches. That is why the work on it was difficult and complicated. To illustrate their contacts at the top of the state, Tonchev says that Stefan Dimitrov had a report from the interrogation of a witness that accused them of criminal activity.
It is an open secret that the former head of customs, Petya Bankova, who was later arrested, was interrogated as witnesses and gave information before the accusations.
In early 2024, DANS learned that Pascal was starting to build a new channel for contraband cigarettes made in Turkey. The goods from there are significantly cheaper than those in the illegal factories in Bulgaria. Through this canal, it was possible for dozens of trucks to pass a month in the direction of Western Europe, thus simultaneously damaging the budget of Bulgaria and that of Europe from unimported excise and customs duties.
At the end of February this year DANS agents go on the trail of a shooting range with contraband cigarettes. At that time, Petya Bankova was still the deputy head of customs, but a month later he would become the director.
There are contraband cigarettes in the truck, but according to documents it is full of frozen pasta
from Greece. The shipment has been tracked in a controlled manner. The driver enters Bulgaria and heads to his home in the village of Kostadinovo near Pazardzhik. Then it became clear in court that it was Kiril Petrov. 4 days later, the driver gets on the truck and leaves with it through the Oryahovo border crossing to Romania. DANS decided to check the cargo outside Bulgaria. The Romanians stop the truck and find 742 cartons of cigarettes without a banderol. Later, the prosecutor’s office presented data that Stefan Dimitrov and Nikola Nikolov-Pascal were traveling in the same car on the same route in the days surrounding the passage of this bullet towards Romania. And the locations of the truck sent to Pascal were found in the young man’s phone. After capturing the goods, they decided to change the route.
Later, another case of Pascal’s arrow became known, which, however, entered through Serbia. During the investigation, already under the supervision of the prosecutor’s office, several more cases were discovered, “24 Chasa” learned.
While developing the criminal group, DANS found enough data that Stefan and Marin Dimitrovi were close to Petya Bankova, the deputy Lyudmil Marinov and the chief secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time Zhivko Kotsev. And about Stefan Dimitrov, they learned that he was preparing “gifts” after the seizure of the truck with the contraband cigarettes, which were supposed to be delivered to the parking lot of the National Assembly.
The goal was to build protection for a new channel after the failure in Romania. However, Dimitrov failed to hand them over because the arrests were on the same day. It never became clear who was supposed to take the money in the MP’s parking lot and why this case was not documented. However, a lot of money in euros was found in Stefan Dimitrov’s possession.
His phone was full of pictures and chats with people from the underworld,
but also senior executives in the executive branch. The young man often bragged about his contacts and showed them to gain respect, “24 Chasa” learned.
On the day of the detention of Bankova and Dimitrovi, a second truck with cigarettes was discovered, which was waiting in the village of Tsrancha near Pazardzhik. There were twice as many boxes in it – 1502. The former head of customs, the father and the son are still in custody.
Former General Secretary Zhivko Kotsev was accused after first resigning himself, which he later withdrew. He is currently free on bail. Petar Subev from the Border Police was also recently accused, but he is also at large. It is not clear whether the mysterious Pascal will soon keep them company. His fate is in the hands of the court in Serbia.