A location sent over the phone with the location of a warehouse where a TIR with illegal cigarettes was supposed to go, connected the mysterious Nikolay Nikolov – Pascal with the people detained as participants in the group for smuggling, bribery and money laundering.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the participants in it are the head of the Customs Agency Petya Bankova, the former director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Agency Marin Dimitrov and his son Stefan. The three were detained during an operation by the National Security Agency and the Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK). They were charged on Thursday and the prosecution ordered 72 hours of arrest. On Saturday, the state prosecution will ask the Sofia City Court to impose permanent arrest on them.
According to the investigators, the real relationship with Pascal was precisely the son Stefan Dimitrov. He was arrested in Sofia, and his father Marin in his native Haskovo. The location of the warehouse, sent by Pascal through a mobile application, was found in Stefan Dimitrov’s phone. Nikolay Nikolov himself, who for decades spent more time near Kavala in Greece than here, used the numbers of the Baltic states, reports 24 hours.
They are looking for charges for smuggling Nikola Nikolov – Pascal
After seizing the phones of the accused, the investigators discovered an active text message correspondence between them. Again, people close to the investigation claim that Stefan Dimitrov also corresponded with the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Zhivko Kotsev, who resigned on Thursday and withdrew it today.
In the case, special intelligence tools (SRS) were also used, which will be presented to the court as material evidence on Saturday.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the criminal group operated from January 2023 to April 3, 2024. It was “created for profit and to commit smuggling, money laundering and corruption crimes.” The investigators found other connections between Pascal and the detainees.
Samples of the same cigarettes found in the seized gun were also found at the address where Pascal was wanted, and in the office of father and son Dimitrovi. A total of 1,501 master boxes were seized. However, what the role of the head of customs is, it is not yet clear, because there is no official information so far. The prosecutor’s office published a laconic statement about the charges on Thursday, while the DANS and the anti-corruption commission said nothing.
It is unofficially claimed that Petya Bankova knew Stefan Dimitrov, text messages between them were also discovered. Her lawyer, Adelina Nateva, claims that her client did not know any of the other detainees. Before being taken to the anti-corruption commission on Wednesday, Bankova herself, who is the sister of the former head of “Internal Security” and later assistant prosecutor Stefcho Bankov, explained that she was carrying a note about the smuggling channels. She didn’t know Pascal, even removed people in customs associated with him.
Today, employees of the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing were summoned to the DANS for questioning. What they said is not clear, although it is unofficially claimed that there were also witness statements against Bankova. According to the investigators, however, it was clear from the documents seized from the agency that when the bullets, which are supposed to have belonged to Pascal, passed through the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing, some of the employees were seconded. Probably those who weren’t aware of the schemes or wouldn’t cover them up.
This was called “providing a light corridor”, sometimes there were fictitious checks.
And Nikolay Nikolov himself, considered a very prominent smuggler for many years, continues to languish in obscurity. He is accused in absentia of participation in the criminal group.
Although born in Dimitrovgrad and with the last known official address registration in Haskovo, Pascal has not lived there for years, but in Greece, or so it is claimed.
2024-04-05 19:29:29
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