Anti-mafia Georgi Karakolev demoted because of his passion for coffee, he taught students to fight human trafficking
The American intelligence service CIA has reported that the anti-mafia from GDBOP Georgi Karakolev and an agent of DANS are exporting information to a Russian diplomat expelled from Bulgaria. Thus, the two have been placed under control for the past few months until their arrest on Monday morning.
Over the weekend, the court issued more than 20 search warrants in offices and residences, “24 Hours” learned from a source familiar with the investigation. According to the information both of them sent data from the arrays of the services.
Karakolev from GDBOP even did it from his office computer. The data is linked to attempts to circumvent EU sanctions on Russian capital that were imposed after the start of the war in Ukraine.
This is the result of joint actions of the National Security Agency, the GDBOP, the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office and the “Internal Security” Directorate. Unfortunately, it is an employee of the Ministry of the Interior, more specifically of the GDBOP, who is being monitored and controlled. Espionage in favor of Russia is suspected, commented from Plovdiv the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Zhivko Kotsev.
Karakolev is a long-time employee of the Ministry of the Interior. He also went on foreign missions, from where he had contacts with foreigners. Goes to analytics department after demotion. Before that, he was in the “International Operational Cooperation” Directorate. However, he treated himself at an official reception and was punished.
He has worked in several departments of GDBOP, including “Cross-Border Organized Crime” and “Trafficking in Human Beings”. In 2016, he also tried to go to the Border Police. He applied for the “Frontex” sector of the “International Border Police Cooperation” department, but was not admitted to the competition. Not having the required 4 years of professional experience in areas related to the job functions specified in the job description, the refusal read.
Despite his long service, he was not rewarded for his work in our country. However, he has honors for his overseas service.
In addition to being an anti-mafia fighter, Karakolev is also a former security teacher. He worked on a freelance basis, not on a full-time basis. Due to the unsatisfactory results of the students in his disciplines, he was released. Passed them on to combat human trafficking.
Karakolev and his colleague from DANS are the next former or active special police and military officers who were declared Russian spies.
In recent years, this has happened with the group of Ivan Iliev-Resident (former chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev called his group the Bulgarian analogue of the “Cambridge Five”), a military ex-intelligence officer, the head of the secret office of the parliament Krasimir Medarov, retired general Valentin Tsankov, as well as another DANS employee.
So far, none of them have been brought to justice. (What happened to the investigations, see below).
It is not clear whether Karakolev and his colleague from DANS worked together or were recruited independently of each other.
The investigation will also look for others involved.
It is also specified for what sums the two gave information to the former diplomat, when and how they met.
After the start of the war in Ukraine, many companies with Russian capital were sanctioned and lost part of their profits from international business in the countries of the European Union. However, they try to circumvent the bans through various schemes. For that there are at least 300 investigations in the security services, and with the international exchange, they are also available to their colleagues in Bulgaria.
The sanctions are for Russian banks and financial institutions and companies in the military sector, aviation, shipbuilding, engineering, telecommunications, media organizations and many others.
The expulsion of Russian diplomats for espionage in Bulgaria began in 2020 and so far there are more than 80 people. Among them are commercial attachés who take care of the business of their compatriots in the European Union.
For the last time, 5 months ago – in September, the three priests from the Russian Church, who were also declared Russian spies, were expelled from Bulgaria. A week before, the head of the farm, Archimandrite Vasian Zmeev, was banned from entering North Macedonia.
The action in GDBOP and DANS against malicious Russian influence also gave rise to political comments.
The action is on suspicion of espionage in favor of Russia. The information comes from other services. Here’s what’s scary – someone else sees how pierced we are, we don’t. The reform in the services must happen an hour sooner! Yavor Bozhankov, the deputy from “Proceeding the change”, wrote on Facebook.
We have been warning for years that our services have been hacked by Russian agents and are not very effective. Today, this is only the tip of the iceberg, added his colleague from the parliamentary group Ivaylo Mirchev.
On Monday, the Russian ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova spoke to the media about the fact that Moscow can take away the soldiers’ monuments from Bulgaria, but did not comment on another espionage scandal.
Pensioners and intelligence officers from low levels were accused, only Nikolay Malinov was brought to court
So far, the only high-profile case of espionage in favor of Russia that has been brought to court is against the leader of the “Russophiles” movement, Nikolai Malinov. In the last 4 years, there have been several high-profile scandals about the release of state secrets with arrests, but the investigations into them are still ongoing. All are long at large and no one is a client of Themis. The only one, and that for preparation for espionage, is Nikolay Malinov.
The trial against him began in the specialized court, and after its closure continued in the Sofia City Court. The politician, who does not hide his sympathies for Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin, was accused in 2019. In September of the same year, he went to Moscow, where he received an order from the Russian president. His trip caused a scandal, and the judge who allowed it – Andon Mitalov, was banned from visiting the United States. Malinov denies the prosecution’s accusations.
The other investigation that started with much fanfare was against retired military intelligence officer Ivan Iliev, who became known as the Resident. Then he was 75 years old, today he is 78.
His spy network was discovered on March 19, 2021. Also charged were Iliev’s wife Galina, who is a Russian citizen, and four other military intelligence officers, some of them former. A curious detail is that Iliev and his wife met precisely at the headquarters of the GRU, where both were trained during communism.
Former chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev, who personally participated in the press conference where details of the group’s actions were revealed, compared it to the “Cambridge Five”. The pre-trial proceedings conducted by the military prosecutor’s office have already ended, they said. The case was actually brought to court once, but was returned to the prosecutor’s office for further work on it.
According to the indictment, the group worked for Russia for a long time. Ivan Iliev’s wife – Galina, who gave our state secrets to the Russian embassy. According to the prosecutor’s office, they were given to Ivan Iliev by the two military intelligence officers working at the time, Dimitar Vlakhov and Dimitar Grahov, the head of the directorate in the Ministry of Defense, Colonel Petar Petrov, and the head of the secret office in the parliament, Lyubomir Medarov.
The investigation began in September 2020, and its beginning coincided with the expulsion of Russian diplomats Vadim Bykov and Sergey Nikolashin, who were officially considered employees of the trade representation in the mission, but were in fact agents of the GRU. Both were reported to be interested in modernizing our military, buying the US F-16 fighter jets and the military industrial complex.
From conversations between Iliev and his wife recorded by SRS, it became clear that shortly before the action they intended to end their activities.
After the detention of the six, diplomats were expelled from the Moscow mission, as in any action against spies in our country. They are all at large at the moment.
Another espionage scandal erupted in April 2022, when the prosecutor’s office and DANS revealed spies in the agency.
One employee was charged and released on bail. According to the investigators, the investigator who worked on the case had sent the case to the prosecutor’s office with an opinion for termination. The State Prosecution gave instructions on the investigation, which are currently being carried out.
Again in March 2022, retired army brigadier general was detained and charged with espionage. Valentin Tsankov. He was not in custody.
He was suspected of leaking NATO and EU secrets to Russia.
A large amount of flash drives were seized in the case and an expert examination was currently appointed. The experts had to say whether the information in them constituted a state secret.
2024-02-05 21:00:00
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