Bulgarian prosecutors have launched an investigation into officials including the new customs chief, Petya Bankova, and her deputy, Lyudmil Marinov, as prosecutors claim they have evidence of smuggling, money laundering and bribery, Euractiv reports.
In a joint operation between the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office, the new Bulgarian Anti-Corruption Agency and the State Agency for National Security, seven people were arrested, including the new head of the agency and her deputy.
Bulgarian Customs is the key body controlling trade on the Bulgarian-Turkish border, the EU’s busiest land external border. The Bulgarian border serves the bulk of the EU’s trade in food and other goods with Asian countries and is one of the main transit routes for drugs into the EU. The Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office said:
“The Anti-Corruption Commission has opened a criminal case against an organised criminal group that has been carrying out smuggling, money laundering and bribery related to the Customs Agency.”
Prosecutors have begun searches of homes, cars and customs points. Bankova says she is the first victim of the new anti-corruption agency, while her lawyer Adelina Natina suspects political links to drug trafficking.
Bulgarian customs intercepted a 200kg shipment of cocaine at the major port of Burgas 10 days ago. Natina said:
“The data that Petya Bankova has is that the drug money seized at the port of Burgas was to be used to buy elections – by whom, we have no information. It is unlikely that Ms. Bankova will be able to continue to work in customs to uncover the criminal scheme.”
The European Commission has criticised Bulgaria for not having enough convictions in high-level corruption cases, with Bulgarian authorities’ efforts often ending in raids and arrests and corrupt politicians not necessarily facing jail time.
Outgoing Finance Minister Assen Vassilev, who appointed Bankova in February, said it was an attempt to intimidate the customs chief.
Political responsibility for running Bulgarian customs lies with the pro-European PP-DB coalition, which was part of Bulgaria’s collapsed ruling coalition. PP-DB claims that former partners in GERB and DPS informally control the prosecutor’s office and security services, and it is suspected that they are doing so with the upcoming elections in mind.
Outgoing Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said he asked SANS counter-intelligence for a report on the customs raid, but was refused because it required authorisation from the prosecutor’s office. The prime minister added:
“What we know is that since Petya Bankova was appointed, Bulgaria has had a record amount of drug seizures. It is important to find out what is going on so that she does not end up being attacked (by prosecutors) for doing her job.”
Denkov said there had been many rumours that SANS was covering up the drug trade and that it was customs that was intercepting drugs passing through Bulgaria.
