The mysterious shipment of poisonous peanuts from Gambia, which unleashed a wave of concerns in Bulgaria, was not the first to cross its borders, a local businessman claims.

"Poisonous peanuts have been imported and sold in Bulgaria for seven years already," Atanas Panayotov dropped the bomb at a press conference on Sunday.

Panayotov, who has been dealing with nuts imports until 1999, plans to approach the chief prosecutor office and demand the extradition of a Lebanese, who allegedly manages the business.

Toni Gatas holds a Bulgarian passport, but has been living in Gambia for years, dealing with peanut exports. His Bulgarian partner is said to be Atanas Ivanov, the man, who "illegally" pushed Panayotov out of the business.

A total of 30 tons of poisonous peanuts disappeared from a warehouse in Bulgaria's seaside village Kamenar in the middle of February after it emerged that they contain cancer-causing alpha toxins. The peanuts were imported from Gambia in 2006.

"The low price - between USD 50-100 per ton - is the reason for Bulgarian traders to assist the illegal import of poisonous peanuts," the businessman said. The average price tag of fresh peanuts ranges from USD 200-300 per ton.

Atanas Panyotov claims to have alerted the customs officials in Varna and the then Interior Minister over the poisonous batch as early as in 2000, but to no avail.

To top it all off, he called on cancer sufferers to sue the state for the lax border control and bring those responsible for the crime to justice.

The news only comes to add extra fuel to the plight of those diagnosed with cancer in Bulgaria - a total of 300,000 on record. After years of lumbering reforms in Bulgaria's health care system, cancer sufferers and their families feel abandoned in their struggle to come to terms with the illness, both in terms of treatment and emotional support.

Unlike other European countries, whose health care systems do their best to fund extra services to support these people and their relatives through the darkest of times, cancer suffers in Bulgaria face a chronic shortage of life-saving medicines and no support to cope with the emotional turmoil of the illness.

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