Bulgaria’s high-profile kidnappers’ gang known as “The Impudent”, which was busted in December 2009, kidnapped a car thief and murdered him but still took a ransom of EUR 40 000.

This was announced Monday by the Deputy Sofia Prosecutor, Roman Vasilev, who said the gangsters had already killed the car thief Yulian Lefterov when they received the ransom of EUR 40 000 from the man’s family.

The corpse of Lefterov who has a criminal record as a car thief was found near Sofia on Friday. The man went missing in January 2009. According to the prosecutors, it was confessions made by one of the leaders of the Impudent kidnappers – Ivaylo Evtimov, known as Yozhi, that led the investigators to the dead body.

A second dead body of a car thief known as Ivan Petrov, aka Sapata, who was also kidnapped and killed by the Impudent gangsters was also found close to that of Lefterov.

Sapata is believed to have provided the kidnappers with a stolen BMW in which millionaire Kiro Kirov was kidnapped in the spring of 2009.

Prosecutor Vasilev explained that the DNA tests showed that the first dead body belonged to Lefterov, while the second one – supposedly that of Ivan Petrov – was still under examination by the forensic department of the Sofia police.

“Don’t make rash analyses, let the investigators do their job. I just want to point out that such gangland killings and hidden corpses show that these people have fallen very low in moral and ethical respect. And that neither the Interior Ministry, nor the prosecutors will show any mercy for them. Let us stop here, you will find out the entire truth with the charges to be raised,” the Deputy Sofia Prosecutor said.

The high-profile kidnappers’ gang is believed to be responsible for 19 cases of kidnappings of rich Bulgarians. It was busted in a special operation codenamed “The Impudent” in December 2009. A total of 30 people were arrested initially, 10 were left behind bars.