Bulgaria: Varna Police Chief Fired Amid Outrage Over Yavor Georgiev’s Death, GERB Turns on Their Own Minister
Bulgarian Interior Minister Daniel Mitov has removed Senior Commissioner Andrey Angelov from his post as head of Varna’s police
Bulgaria's former Interior Minister in the GERB Cabinet, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, has been summoned for questioning Tuesday morning by the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office.
The interrogation comes in connection with the charges pressed against Bulgarian police's anti-organized crime unit head, Stanimir Florov.
On Friday, Florov was charged with large-scale bribery by the country's prosecuting authority.
The charges stemmed from reports that the Prosecutor's Office and a number of media have received leaked copies of what is claimed to be classified police documents implicating Florov in facilitating drug trafficking.
The alleged documents have been identified as records of police investigations on Florov's suspected activities facilitating international drug trafficking in Bulgaria in the late 1990s and the 2000s.
In particular, the documents mentioned that Florov had been paid to provide cover up for Middle East drug dealers and for the illegal drug manufacturing in the so-called "Opitsvet" affair in 1997.
Currently Head of the Bulgarian police's Chief Directorate for Fight against Organized Crime (GDBOP), at the time Stanimir Florov was an officer in the unit's predecessors.
Tsvetanov stood firmly behind him, rejecting all charges, and saying the anti-mafia chief was a top notch professional while the move of the prosecution equaled "national treason."
Also on Friday, Florov was temporarily released from duties pending the outcome of the investigation.
The order was signed by caretaker Interior Minister, Petya Parvanova.
Valentin Trifonov will be temporarily in charge of GDBOP.
A 20-year-old woman from the village of Kalitinovo, Stara Zagora Province, has been detained by police following a stabbing incident at a restaurant in Sunny Beach.
Tension gripped the Bulgarian city of Varna on Tuesday evening following the death of 36-year-old Yavor Georgiev
A total of 130 people are being removed from three illegal adult care facilities in Varna following an operation carried out Monday night - the third such action in recent weeks
Customs authorities at Bulgaria’s Kapitan Andreevo border crossing have intercepted two significant attempts to smuggle undeclared currency, with a total value approaching 2.8 million leva
Another case of an illegal care home has come to light in Bulgaria
A sixth person has been detained for 24 hours in connection with the case of the illegal nursing homes in the Bulgarian village of Yagoda, near Stara Zagora
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