l The 46-year-old man had business partners with cars, but
part with a scandal
l His contacts are being investigated with drug traffickers and captured
shipments from recent months
Conflict with business partners with the import of cars, seized shipments of cocaine or a warning to other people with whom Nikolai Drakopolov was close. These are part of the working versions of the murder of the 46-year-old man, learned “24 hours” from sources familiar with the investigation.
Drakopolov was shot with two bullets while waiting in a traffic jam on the ring road in Sofia on Tuesday shortly after 8 p.m.
The killer was waiting for him under the roundabout bridge. When he noticed his Mercedes G-Class jeep, he headed for the driver’s seat. He pulled out a pistol, probably a Makarov, and
shot fast and
exactly twice.
Both bullets
Fall into
the head of
the victim
He dies immediately. At that moment, an 11-year-old boy was riding in the front seat next to Drakopolov. The child belonged to Nikolai’s girlfriend, who was not with them at the moment. According to their relatives, with whom “24 Chasa” spoke, the woman was with COVID and came to the place later. Miraculously, the child was not injured – both bullets were stuck in the head of Nikolai Drakopolov.
After the murder, the shooter retreats in the direction from which he came and disappears into the darkness. There were reports that he was disguised as a tramp because there were often people at the intersection asking for money from drivers.
Late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, detectives were looking for clues to where the shooter was waiting for his victim. Sofia City Prosecutor Iliana Kirilova and the head of the Sofia Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, Georgi Hadjiev, were also there. They confirmed the identity of the victim.
A few meters from the place where Drakopolov was killed is the car dealership “Antonio Auto”, where he sells cars. (What does this have to do with this business – read below.) He passed by every day. Therefore, it is assumed that the mercenary was informed by the guarantors or intermediaries of the shooting that he could wait for him there. The victim’s relationship with everyone with whom he had financial and business relations in recent years is checked. Drivers from the convoy and relatives of the victim have been explaining since Tuesday evening and on Wednesday. Investigators were looking for cars with video recorders that were in the area in the minutes around the murder, video surveillance cameras in the surrounding shops, as well as the Sofia municipality, which were filming on the ring road and the roundabout below.
Nikolay Drakopolov has criminal records with the police and is
known to the Ministry of Interior
for fraud,
robberies and
drug trafficking
Until 2018, it was part of a car import scheme involving two other businessmen. They were the engines of operations. Expensive limousines and SUVs were imported from Europe at reduced prices, transferred through several companies, some of which were under Drakopolov’s control, and then sold through an already bankrupt leasing company to bona fide buyers. The scheme was revealed and then Drakopolov’s relations with his partners deteriorated. They have other car dealerships that are large and operational, unlike Antonio Auto, which has had modest turnover in the last year. The Mercedes jeep in which Drakopolov was killed was one of 16 cars sold at his car dealership on the ring road. Due to the conflict of the shootings with his old partners, it was reported that he had testified against them for tax crimes and even asked for security.
There is no confirmation of this yet. However, according to a source in “24 Chasa”, this is unlikely because the connection is direct and the attention of investigators would be immediately focused on this trail. For comparison – the last contract shooting before Drakopolov’s was the broker Stanka Marangozova. She was killed in front of her home on October 10, 2019. Even then, the leading version was her conflict with Veselin Denkov-Veso Bradata and Ivo Maslarov, with whom she was sued for money and witnessed the case against them for extortion. However, the evidence appeared only after the arrest of Ventsislav Pirov for cocaine in his grandmother’s house. Then he admitted that he was an assistant to the physical killer of the broker Petar Kostov-Staklarya. Pirov also told about the organizer – the NSO officer Boris Ivanov, as well as about the guarantor Maslarov.
Immediately after the murder of Nikolai Drakopolov, unknown to the general public, there was talk in the underworld of his involvement in drug trafficking, as well as the probable cause of his execution. According to them, the business with the car dealership of Niki Antonio, as it is known in these circles, was to cover up the far more profitable and dangerous activity. He is even linked to construction contractor Borislav Atanasov-Bobby Mekoto, who was arrested in South Africa in early March for 935kg of cocaine on board a ship. Atanasov was abducted in 2009 and released for BGN 500,000. The Naglite were tried for the crime, but were acquitted. Even then, the Ministry of Interior admitted that Bobby Mekoto was under investigation for international drug trafficking. He, like Nikolai Drakopolov, never appeared in public. Atanasov was not even present at the case against the Nagli, and a picture of him in a mask appeared at a court hearing in South Africa in mid-March. For
acquaintance of
Drakopolov with
Borislav
Atanasov
confirmed two
the source
on “24 hours”. However, the victim did not emerge in the work on the two largest shipments of cocaine, which were seized in Bulgaria last year. – on the trucks with fruit cartons and on the packages in “Student City”.
If Nikolai was part of the drug trafficking scheme and knew too much, this could be the reason for his shooting, say people familiar with the clearing of accounts in the underground.
However, according to Drakopolov’s relatives, with whom “24 Chasa” managed to talk, he had no contact with the dangerous business or at least they do not know about it. He never used security. He has been dealing with cars since 2012. Then the company he worked for was registered by a former police officer, an inspection of “24 Chasa” showed. It was then transferred several times to other owners, already proxies, many of whom were also used by his former partners. Drakopolov does not appear in any document of the company and has no participation in others. The fact is, however, that every day he went to the car dealership on the ring road and even his personal phone is under the ads for the sale of the 16 cars in the catalog.
In fact, after a rift with his former partners, when he was only part of a car resale scheme, he started his business again, now with another company. Again, he is not the owner and manager, but his girlfriend Dimitrina.
It remains a mystery why Drakopolov was so cautious. There are no pending criminal investigations against him. He was a defendant in lawsuits over debts – small sums that he did not pay to mobile operators. A young businesswoman is also seeking money from him through the courts, but the amount is far from a motive for murder, a 24-hour inspection showed.
On the day of the murder, he went to several places in Sofia, learned “24 hours”, including in a bank and in his office in the yard of the car dealership. In recent months, he has driven various cars, except for the Mercedes jeep in which the bullets overtook him. He was an educated man, behaved normally and did not show that he had a lot of money.
– .
