80% of the cars cut for parts, the others travel with false documents to Russia
The Lioness, The Granny, The Helmet, Schumacher, The Turkey… At first glance, the strange combination of words is actually only some of the nicknames of the leaders of car theft gangs.
The 35 leaders of groups, who do not shy away from stealing both luxury cars and pastry chefs, were identified by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor’s office, and a large-scale operation across the country began against them on Tuesday morning. It was by order of the chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev.
His spokeswoman Siika Mileva explained that according to the state prosecution, there is an increase in car thefts. One of the reasons was the closure of specialized justice.
Bandits are most often active between midnight and 5 am. In 80% of cases, they drive the car to a garage or other hiding place to be disassembled. A brigade of ten people is waiting there. “Like piranhas, they pounced on the car and cut it to pieces. From there, the parts go to car morgues, car dealerships and second-hand parts stores,” explained the deputy. the chief prosecutor and head of the investigation Borislav Sarafov. Both megaluxury new cars, which have contactless ignition, also known as keyless, and cheaper, pie type, are victims of such “cutting”.
The main reason is that there is a hunger for parts from both types of cars. Sometimes, however, baniacharkas are also used to transport migrants. They are convenient for the sewers, because in the cargo compartment the refugees remain hidden. Often, craftsmen drive their tools in such cars, and therefore traffic police do not stop them for inspection if they do not commit an obvious violation. The tools of labor are heavy, so such cars are easily broken, and this leads to a hunger for parts in the market, which car thieves fill when ordering from the morgues they work with.
“One of the most expensive possessions of a Bulgarian, after the house, is the car. Car thieves are becoming more and more innovative,” said Mileva. She explained about the new method known as the suitcase. It is used to steal cars with contactless ignition. The technique consists of 2 parts. One intercepts the signal from the key and is carried in a bag or suitcase, hence the name. The other passes it to the car, which unlocks and starts. Before, the thief had to be a meter away from the key, and now – more than 5, and while he is in the apartment and the owner is sleeping, Mileva said.
It also happened that the car thieves extorted the owners of the stolen cars. They were contacted by phone and asked for money to return them.
Mileva explained that for 2022 there are a total of 1,223 new cases of car theft, which is 120 more than the cases for 2021. 189 were convicted, 56 went to prison. Only one was acquitted, Mileva added.
1,495 are the stolen cars in 2022, police chief Atanas Ilkov calculated. And explained that while this is just over 100 more than 2021, it there were 343 detainees – an increase of 2 percent.
In this year, thefts fell by 18%. He explained that most cars taken for parts go to car morgues in Sofia and Pernik.
The expensive brands that are exported abroad – about 20% – are for Russia and the countries of the former USSR. They pass through Turkey. They were driven there by Bulgarians with foreign license plates and false documents. After reaching our southern neighbor, the drivers returned to us by bus.
By 11 a.m. on Tuesday, 46 people had been detained. Service stations, garages, homes and auto morgues in Sofia and Pernik, Varna, Dupnitsa and others were checked. It is being checked where the documents of the cars exported abroad were made.
Among those detained for up to 24 hours was Svetoslav Petkov – the Lioness, who is on trial and accused in many cases, but has not been convicted.
Iliyan Dimitrov – The grandmother was also the object of interest of the investigators, although she is under house arrest. He was detained at the end of 2022 for stealing a jeep in Sofia. A year earlier, he became famous after he was arrested because of the stolen jeep of the president (2012-2017) Rosen Plevneliev. Then they let him go for lack of evidence.
Another popular crime hero with several convictions not only for car thefts, who was detained, is Ivan Janinski – Schumacher.
Valentin Kirilov – The turkey is juicy for the leader of the bandits in Pernik. However, he was not arrested until the editorial close of the issue. Unlike him, Nikolay Sakaliev – Kaskata heard the click of handcuffs.
