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Monika Dobrinova is pictured here with her daughter Lara. Photo personal archive
The former wife of alleged Bulgarian drug lord Evelin Banev aka Brendo has made a desperate plead nearly a month after their little daughter was abducted.
Monika Dobrinova pleaded for her 10-year-old daughter's safe return in an interview for the 24 Hours daily, saying she is worried sick by the lack of information.
“Days go by painfully slow. I am on sedatives, because I am very worried about my child. The only way to fall asleep is to take a pill, sometimes I am afraid I can take an overdose because I can’t think clearly. I can not eat, I can not do anything,” Monika Dobrinova shared in the interview, tears welling up in her eyes.
The mother said she can’t take the uncertainty any more and is on the verge of breaking down physically and emotionally.
She reiterated that she does not trust the Bulgarian state and the Bulgarian police, but is ready to give everything she has to bring her daughter back.
Addressing the abductors, she assured them she is ready to do everything they ask her and begged them to contact her.
"I want to appeal to the people, who abducted Lara, and tell them I just want to know whether she is alive and well, " said Dobrinova.
She explained that Lara is very vital and loving child and she certainly is going through hell now.
"She does not deserve this, she is just a child. I would do absolutely anything to get her back.”
10-year-old Lara was abducted by masked gunmen at approximately 7:30 am at the beginning of March 5 in the affluent Sofia suburb of Boyana.
Her 36-year-old bodyguard was reportedly shot twice in the back.
The three masked gunmen who abducted the girl were allegedly driving a stolen BMW X5 vehicle.
Brendo was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison last month. He is being held in prison in Italy.
He was charged with heading an organized crime gang and money laundering.
His accomplices, Monika Dobrinova, Desislava Dishlieva and Simo Karaychev, received a 3-year suspended sentence with a five-year probation period.
Banev and the others are charged with laundering over EUR 2 M using a personal account belonging to Konstantin Dishliev, owner of a firm called Private Finance Union, who was killed in 2005.
Dobrinova is Brendo's ex wife, while Dishlieva is Dishliev's widow.
Banev has been known as Bulgaria's "cocaine king." He was born on October 9 1964 in the Black Sea city of Burgas.
Banev was arrested on May 16 2012 in the Black Sea town of Sozopol in an international special police operation codenamed Cocaine Kings, along with 15 other Bulgarians, 12 Italians, one Slovenian, one Romanian, and one Georgian.
In the aftermath of Banev's 2012 arrest, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, stated that Banev had an Interpol arrest warrant in Switzerland on charges of trafficking 10 tons of cocaine from South America to Europe and of money laundering.
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