Police in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, have uncovered an organized criminal group responsible for siphoning large amounts of fuel from a Lukoil pipeline located south of the city. The operation, carried out by officers from the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, led to the arrest of four men suspected of draining diesel worth nearly one million leva (500,000 euros).

According to investigators, the group had been active for about a month, operating mostly at night to avoid detection. They had carefully adjusted the siphoning process so that the pipeline’s pressure remained stable and the theft would not trigger alarms. During the late-night raid, officers caught the suspects in the act and seized two vehicles outfitted with one-ton fuel containers used to transport the stolen diesel. The fuel was then moved to larger storage tanks in a nearby building before being sold illegally.

Authorities described the scheme as highly sophisticated. The perpetrators drilled into the Lukoil pipeline, installed a metal crane, and connected it to an underground tank that had been buried in advance. The fuel was directed into this hidden reservoir and later pumped into canisters loaded into two SUVs. Once full, the containers were taken to a storage facility where the fuel was poured into larger tanks for distribution.

District Prosecutor Neyka Teneva confirmed that an inspection was underway at the crime scene, where investigators had located the installed crane and the underground piping used in the theft. She explained that the siphoned diesel was pumped from the underground tank into the vehicles before being delivered to the group’s base of operations.

Prosecutor Mitko Ignatov added that the most unusual aspect of the case was that Lukoil itself had not reported the pipeline breach. The signal to police came instead from operational intelligence. “The affected company did not even know about the puncture in the pipeline,” Ignatov said, noting that the police had been working on the tip for several days before moving in.

So far, investigators have seized around seven tons of diesel fuel as evidence. The four suspects, all with prior criminal activity, are facing charges for theft on a particularly large scale and for organizing a criminal group. Pre-trial proceedings have begun, and prosecutors have requested that the men be detained for 72 hours before seeking a permanent custody order.

The case remains under investigation as authorities work to determine whether the operation had been running longer than initially believed and to assess the total losses caused by the theft.