An Italian court has sentenced to twenty years in jail alleged Bulgarian drug lord Evelin Banev AKA Brendo, wrapping up the trial against the so-called "Cocaine Kings”.

The sentence was delivered on Monday and is subject to appeal.

Banev was charged with being the ring leader of an organized crime group dealing with illegal drug trafficking, financing cocaine trafficking, and trans-border organized crime.

Banev is being held in prison in Milan, Italy, where he was extradited after his arrest in Bulgaria last spring in a special police operation codenamed "Cocaine Kings," and is coming to Bulgaria only for the court sessions of the local trial against him.

Banev has firmly refused to travel to Bulgaria despite the opportunity to see his 10-year-old daughter Lara who was recently released by her abductors.

At the beginning of March, Banev's 10-year-old daughter Lara was abducted by masked gunmen in the affluent Sofia suburb of Boyana. A 36-year-old bodyguard was shot twice in the back.

According to various reports, the abduction was a warning for him to keep silent in the Milan Court.

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