The participation of Plamen Galev and Angel Hristov, charged with leading an organized crime group, extortion and racketeering, in the summer elections last year highlighted the weakness of Bulgaria's judicial system. And so did their trial.

“Why the hell do you want me to make a comment?!,” Galev said, dismissing insolently the reporters in front of the court room in the town of Kyustendil after the two top mafia bosses were acquitted. His right-hand ally Angel Hristov also kept his silence and did not make the least effort to hide his smirk.

The pair are well known to be top mafia lords, failed MP wannabes and benefactors of Dupnitsa, a sleepy, impoverished and dilapidated Bulgarian town at the foot of the Rila mountain, some 60 km south of Sofia.

But now it is the witnesses, who dared come to court that have every reason to be afraid. The taxi drivers, who claim to have been beaten and forced by "the brothers" to pay BGN 500 each month so that their cabs continue operating undisturbed, said the court has turned the crime bosses into “gods” and now they are afraid for their lives and their families.

“God save Dupnitsa!,” exclaimed Antonio Yakimov, who, small wonder, has moved to live in a different town. “I hoped that this trial will end the galevization in Dupnitsa. Now I expect it to spread all over Bulgaria.”

Yakimov is one of the few without an upbeat opinion about the two men, shared by the majority of the people in Dupnitsa, partly based on fear, partly on what has widely been described as "mostly genuine gratitude".

True, nobody in Bulgaria outside the judicial system has seen any proofs of Galevi’s crimes. But in Bulgaria there have never been sufficient proofs to bring to justice two privileged groups – the mafia bosses and the secret services agents.

Yet it is a public secret that the Galevi brothers are mafia bosses who hold the citizens of Dupnitsa on a leash. It is not that people like them, it is just that their jobs and prosperity depend on the two burly former policemen, whose background and businesses are as shady as they can be.

The pair are members of an advisory council to the town's mayor. All key decisions taken by the municipality are greenlighted by them. They supervise the deputy mayors, participate in meetings with investors and join officials' press conferences. Locals say they don't even shy away from using the mayor's office for business meetings.

The Galevi trial came in the wake of a large-scale and ostentatious raid by what appeared to be the state army, which rummaged offices, auto-houses and apartments in he capital Sofia, Pernik and Dupnitsa. The efforts of the state, which harnessed its whole arsenal to confront the mafia bosses, just showed how untouchable they have become. How they capitalize on the weakness of the state and the local authorities, how they have merged with them, making out of Dupnitsa a stronghold of their own, called Galevgrad.

After the raid, which made headlines for weeks on end, all eyes were on the investigators - it was their obligation to analyze the collected information and turn it into irrefutable proofs for the court room. That was the only way, in which the state machine could stand up against that self-proclaimed autonomous republic, called Dupnitsa or Galevgrad.

Back then the Galevi brothers acted as if they were untouchable. Now they really proved themselves to be untouchable.

In their home town, the brothers have taken up the role of the state, which is missing. Following Thursday’s ruling it is more than clear that Bulgaria's justice system is missing too.

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