Bulgarian national Dimitar Dimitrov, 58, an alleged ringleader, who was arrested last month in the Unites States, will remain behind bars for threatening to break kneecaps over an unpaid debt of a former crime associate, local media reported.

In court papers Friday, Assistant US Attorney Kathleen Bliss alleged that Dimitrov vowed to get crime figures in Bulgaria to "cut off the ears" of the former associate, Atanasov Kostadinov, and "use them as cigarette holders," reports Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Dimitrov also threatened to have people break Kostadinov's leg, stab him in the spine and drown him, Bliss wrote.

This is the same guy FBI agents and Las Vegas police say they overheard on wiretaps bragging that he knew how to keep a witness in line by tying him to a tree with wire, pouring gasoline over him and standing next to him with cigarettes and a lighter.

At a detention hearing for Dimitrov on May 24, Bliss told U.S. Magistrate Robert Johnston that the defendant was heard saying, "I'm going to turn him into barbecue."

Johnston, however, wasn't impressed and ordered Dimitrov released on 0,000 bail with house arrest and electronic monitoring.

Bliss' latest unflattering portrayal of Dimitrov, however, got the attention of US District Judge Kent Dawson, who put the magistrate's decision on hold and ordered Dimitrov to remain behind bars.

Dimitrov and 10 others were indicted last month on a variety of federal charges related to the theft of cars from auto dealers and cash from bank ATMs.

In all, the ring has defrauded a dozen valley auto dealers out of .6 million worth of cars and stole at least 0,000 from ATMs over the past two years, prosecutors allege.

Bliss said in her court papers that Dimitrov was overheard on wiretaps bragging that he also has "crews" in the south of France, Spain and Portugal and frequently makes "business trips" to Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador.

Dimitrov, known by the nickname "Fero" in Bulgarian crime circles, also bragged about beating up and slashing the face of a man who reported to police that Dimitrov had stolen a luxury car, Bliss alleged.

Dimitrov's lawyer, Todd Leventhal, had questioned the credibility of the wiretap information Bliss presented at the detention hearing.

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