Send to Kindle
The entrance of the Central Court building in Bulgaria's capital became a crime scene after the shooting at convicted Bulgarian mobster Zlatomir Ivanov Baretata. Photo by BGNES
A Kalashnikov machinegun has been found after the police searched the premises of the apartment from where a top Bulgarian mobster was shot at Tuesday.
Bulgarian top crime boss, Zlatomir Ivanov aka Baretata (The Beret, The Barret) was shot around 9:30 am in the vicinity of the Central Court building in the Bulgarian capital as he was going there for an appeals hearing in an illegal drugs distribution case against him.
It is presumed the shots came from a rooftop apartment across the street from the main courtroom building in downtown Sofia. The assailants then set the apartment on fire to cover up clues and evidence.
In addition to the A.K.A. Kalashnikov with a telescopic sight and a silencer, the police also found many bullet casings, and other unspecified evidence.
On the day of the shooting, police experts said the weapon has been either a small-caliber rifle with a telescopic sight, without a silencer, or a Kalashnikov with telescopic sight.
The investigation has also located an inhabited apartment with a direct view of the side entrance of the Court building on "Positano" street. All buildings on the same street have been checked.
In the aftermath of the shooting, one of the codefendants in the case, Valentin Lukov, told reporters that Baretata usually came in the Court building from the side entrances, not from the central one where he was shot.
Lukov said he thought Baretata used the central entrance because he had been running late for the hearing and access through the side doors is usually slower.
The defendant informed he heard the shots, turned around, saw Ivanov fallen by the door and managed to pull him inside. Baretata had uttered: "I am fine."
The police further reported Wednesday that Baretata arrived for the hearing in a Mercedes with Sliven license plates, while the black SUV, which was believed to have been the vehicle transporting him, had been parked there by bodyguards to divert attention.
Doctors at the emergency Pirogov hospital have declined offering details.
Hong Kong police have detained three men on suspicion of manslaughter following the massive blaze that swept through a large residential complex
A massive fire tore through several residential towers in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district
Police officers from the Kostinbrod station carried out an improvised rescue operation late last night, managing to pull seven buses out of a burning depot in the village of Petarch
A blaze broke out early this morning in a bus parking area near Kostinbrod, destroying multiple vehicles and disrupting local transport services
A devastating fire erupted late on November 4 at a retirement home in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina
In the early hours of Tuesday, a tragic incident unfolded in the Bulgarian village of Lyulyakovo
Fourteen people have been formally charged for their role in the violence that broke out during the December 1 protest in central Sofia
At the request of the Pleven District Prosecutor’s Office, the Pleven District Court has ordered the pre-trial detention of three men, citizens of Georgia, who are accused of migrant trafficking
Handcuffed and with his head bowed, 24-year-old Juney Dyulgerov appeared before the Plovdiv District Court in connection with the tragic traffic accident on the Plovdiv Ring Road
The 23-year-old son of a prominent businessman from Madan, Bulgaria, was violently killed and his body discarded in a local river, the Smolyan District Prosecutor's Office confirmed
In Sofia’s “Studentski Grad” neighborhood, a minor was fatally stabbed following a violent altercation in front of a local restaurant
Bulgarian authorities have dismantled an organized criminal network involved in transporting migrants to Western Europe through Bulgaria
Bulgaria's Strategic Role in the EU's Drone Wall Defense Initiative
When Politics Means Violence
