Bulgaria Police Destroy High-Profile Kidnappers' Gang in Special Operation

Crime | December 18, 2009, Friday // 03:58

Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry arrested 25 people Thursday in a large-scale special operation codenamed “The Impudent”, thus capturing the entire gang responsible for a number of high-profile kidnappings in the last two years.

The special operation “The Impudent” cracking down on the gang which has terrorized Bulgaria by kidnapping important businessmen and/or their relatives was carried out in Sofia as well as in the northern cities of Veliko Tarnovo and Montana. 15 men were arrested in Sofia and 10 in Veliko Tarnovo.

The special operation was conducted jointly by the Interior Ministry, the State National Security Agency DANS and the Prosecutor’s Office.

The latest high-profile abduction in Bulgaria was the kidnapping of 22-year-old student Rumen Guninski Jr, son of businessman Rumen Guninski Sr, who spent 40 days in captivity. Various reports put the ransom paid for his release in November at EUR 300 000 – EUR 1 M.

Businessman Kiro Kirov was kidnapped in the spring of 2009 and released for a ransom of EUR 620 000. The highest-profile abduction in 2008 was that of Angel Bonchev, former President of the Litex Football Club, and then of his wife Aneliya. Businessman Vene Sotirov was abducted in the spring of 2009 and is still missing.

“We have carried out an extremely well-organized special police operation against persons who are involved in the kidnappings of Bulgarian citizens. 23 persons have been detained so far, of them 5-6 are the really important ones. These people are extremely arrogant, impudent, with rich criminal records, some of them have been in prison for robberies or attempted murders, and unfortunately, God knows why, they have been released for good behavior. There is indisputable evidence that this gang is the one responsible for the kidnappings in the last two years. After this operation of the Interior Ministry together with the Prosecutor’s Office, the people who have been terrorizing the Bulgarian society will be sentenced,” Minister Tsvetanov declared.

Bulgaria’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Boyko Naydenov, was the key participant in operation on part of the Prosecutor’s Office.

Minister Tsvetanov has also announced that an acting officer of Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry was under investigation over suspicious contacts with the gang of high-profile kidnappers; the investigation is focusing on finding out whether the officer’s contacts with members of the kidnappers’ gang were as part of his work, or whether they were aimed at supporting their criminal activity.

Bulgaria’s Interior Minister has stated that the “impudence” of the high-profile kidnappers’ gang busted earlier on Thursday was beyond imagination.

During the ceremony for awarding Bulgaria’s “Policemen of the Year”, Tsvetanov made it clear that of the total of 25 persons who were arrested in the special operation, 6-8 were the actual bosses of the crime ring.

Tsvetanov did not mention any names but mentioned two nicknames of the main criminals - “Yozhi” and “Kulturista” (i.e. “the Bodybuilder”). He did say, however, that there were one or two people standing above those two in the hierarchy of the kidnappers’ gang.

“The impudence and the outrageousness of those persons knows no limits. They went so far as to equip a second room for holding abducted people – i.e. so that they can kidnap and keep more than one victim at a time, and thus to make more money out of their hits!” Tsvetanov declared.

In his words, the high-profile kidnappers’ gang was connected with a car thieves ring which was busted by the police at the end of November 2009, including the arrests of two legendary car thieves known as “The Duck” and “The Fat”. One more car thief is known as “The Hamster” was arrested on Thursday during “The Impudent” special operation.

“It is really great that one of the wanted gangsters, who was outside of Bulgaria, decided to come back and entered the country at 3 am this morning. Apparently, he was reading our thoughts because thanks to his return we managed to bust him at 6 am,” Bulgaria’s Interior Minister said not specifying the name of the criminal.

The police have discovered the room where the kidnappers’ gang held there victims. It is equipped in such a way that the person kept inside has no touch whatsoever with the outside world, and had no idea where they were, or what time or day it was.

The policemen also found a pair of scissors which were apparently used for cutting ears and fingers of the victims. For example, the former President of the Litex Football Club, Angel Bonchev, who spent about two months in captivity in 2008 had two of his fingers cut off before he was released.

Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, who was Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry in 2001-2005, has described the kidnappers' gang as a very strong and united team of car thieves and people specializing in making fake credit cards, who had not official jobs but were living in luxury thanks to their crimes.

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