Barrot, accompanied by the Bulgarian EC Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Meglena Kuneva, spoke for reporters at the Radisson hotel in downtown Sofia.

“Your judiciary system is producing very few positive results,” Barrot stated in the presence of the Bulgarian Justice Minister Miglena Tacheva, the Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev and members of the Bulgarian Supreme Judiciary Council.

Barrot added that the effectiveness of the fight against organized crime depended on the effectiveness of the judiciary system.

“There is some movement in Bulgaria, but the real reforms are still upcoming,” the EC Vice-President stated.

Barrot’s main objections towards Bulgaria include: obsolete Penalty Code, very few trials leading to serious and real convictions for the mafia bosses or for corrupted individuals.

“The organized crime is poison; the mafia is an obstacle to the development of the economy. Your task is very difficult since deep reforms cannot be achieved in one day,” Barrot pointed out.

The EC Vice-President further reminded that according to 2008 data of “Transparency International”, Bulgaria ranked 72nd in Europe for its institutions’ commitment to fight corruption, while Denmark and Finland took the leading positions.

“I love your country. I am in Sofia as a friend,” Barrot concluded.

EC Vice President: Bulgaria Judiciary System Produces Few Results – 20 January 2009, Tuesday – This story was found at: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=100577

The Bulgarian mafia controls the Madrid discotheques’ security business while the gang of the Bulgarian known as Ivo is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the Spanish capital, an article published in the Spanish newspaper ABC reported.

According to the article, of all Bulgarian “discotheque” mafia, the most dangerous one was the “Gang of Ivo”. Ivo was notorious in the Madrid underworld, had his own army of guards, and personally hired the security of the discotheques in the Spanish capital.

A police source had informed the Spanish newspaper about the wide-spread practice of Bulgarian mafia, forcing Madrid club owners to hire their people as security guards. The guards worked on a commission of 20% of their salary – it they made EUR 100 per night, EUR 20 were going into the Mafia’s cash-box.

The publication further explains that the “Gang of Ivo” had over 100 members – mostly Bulgarians, Romanians and Ukrainians, which the local police had describer a s”huge gorillas, inducing fear and disregarding everybody’s basic rights.”

The author of the article writes that the Bulgarian mafia was involved in the illegal drugs business and in murders for hire. The illegal drugs were sold in the clubs controlled by the Bulgarians.

“Bulgarian Mafia controls Madrid’s nightlife” – 26. November 2008. | 09:56 – Source: Sofia News Agency – This story was found at: http://www.emportal.co.yu/en/news/region/70673.html

During a furious political season last year, the home of the chairwoman of a municipal electoral committee was set on fire, and the garages of mayors were firebombed. The mayor of a resort town in central Bulgaria was shot and killed with seven bullets, as was the wealthy City Council chairman in the outwardly idyllic Black Sea port of Nesebur.

“Other countries have the mafia,” said Atanas Atanasov, a member of Parliament and a former counterintelligence chief who is a magnet for leaked documents exposing corruption. “In Bulgaria, the mafia has the country.”

By almost any measure, Bulgaria is the most corrupt country in the 27-member European Union. Since it joined last year, it has emerged as a cautionary tale for Western nations confronting the stark reality and heavy costs of drawing fragile post-Communist nations into their orbit, away from Russia’s influence.

European Union membership has done little to tame the criminal networks in Bulgaria. It has arguably only made those networks richer, raising worries that if the union cannot tamp down criminal activity in a member like Bulgaria it may have little sway over other fragile nations that want to join.

The United States helped Bulgaria into NATO, has rotated troops through for joint exercises since 2004 and has tried to encourage commerce, education and democracy. It has just announced that it will invest more than $90 million in facilities and equipment for joint use in military exercises.

The European Union, eager to improve the lives of the 7.5 million Bulgarians, has promised 11 billion euros, or nearly $15 billion, in aid.

Far from halting crime and violence, the money effectively spread the corruption. Once Bulgaria’s shady businessmen realized how much European Union money was at stake, said many of Sofia’s advocates for reform, they moved from buying off politicians to being directly involved in politics themselves.

And so European officials froze almost $670 million in financing this summer and may halt the flow of billions more, alarmed at freewheeling white-collar criminals with links to the very highest reaches of power.

The nation’s homegrown mobs of men in black — the “mutri,” or mugs — control construction projects in city halls. And questionable business networks have moved from declining black markets for smuggled cigarettes and alcohol to legal investments in booming real estate. They have made their mark on the capital’s atmosphere: men nicknamed “thick necks” for their muscular appearance linger in neon-lighted nightclubs like Sin City and Lipstick, or keep watch over Mercedes jeeps and Audis outside. Sofia guidebooks offer tips: Avoid restaurants that draw businessmen with four or more bodyguards.

Now, men like this are muscling into public office.

Ties to Top Officials

Investigators with the European Union’s antifraud office are focusing on the Nikolov-Stoykov group, a sprawling conglomerate of dozens of companies with interests from meat processing and cold storage to scrap metal and a Black Sea resort.

The group’s leading partners — both briefly detained last year on suspicion of fraud — boast top connections. Ludmil Stoykov helped finance the campaign of President Georgi Parvanov, organized a business group supporting him and maintained ties to a former deputy minister of foreign affairs.

Mr. Stoykov, who has not been charged with any crime since his arrest last year, denies knowing about criminal activities involving European Union funds. “I categorically object to these attempts to stain my name and to be treated as a criminal,” he said in answer to written questions.

He acknowledges giving 25,000 leva, about $17,000, as a campaign contribution to Bulgaria’s president. “I participated with a donation according to all requirements by the law,” he said. “And no one is saying the opposite.”

His partner, Mario Nikolov, who is scheduled to stand trial next week on fraud charges, forged discreet alliances to Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, according to contracts and bank deposit slips turned over to prosecutors last week by Boyko Borisov, the mayor of Sofia, who is a fierce rival of the prime minister. Those documents show he steered more than $137,000 to Mr. Stanishev’s Socialist Party as contributions from his companies.

In an unusually blunt report leaked this summer, European Union fraud investigators accused the Nikolov-Stoykov group of being a front for a “criminal company network composed of more than 50 Bulgarian enterprises and various other European and offshore companies.”

Among the European Union investigators’ accusations were tax and subsidy fraud: taking development aid to buy new equipment for companies and then passing off ancient equipment from the former East Germany and pocketing the difference. The companies were also accused of illegally importing huge quantities of Chinese rabbit meat for export to France and Germany with fake health certificates from Argentina.

Reached at his office at Eurofrigo, a cold storage company in Sofia, Mr. Nikolov repeatedly declined to comment on the documents indicating contributions to the prime minister, which Bulgarian prosecutors said Wednesday were under formal investigation. After the European fraud report was leaked, Mr. Nikolov said: “I became public enemy No. 1. I am afraid for my life.”

Mr. Stanishev, the prime minister, did not respond to 10 attempts to seek comment over a six-day period. A former journalist educated at the London School of Economics, Mr. Stanishev was called “Mr. Clean” by President Bush last year for his efforts to fight organized crime. After other European nations started complaining about aid fraud, Mr. Stanishev said publicly that there was no “umbrella” of protection for rich businessmen or organized crime figures.

Dozens of Bulgarian journalists protested in central Sofia on Thursday to demand a crackdown on organised crime after an editor was injured in an assault described by parliament as an attack on freedom of speech.

Ognyan Stefanov, 54, was attacked by four men who broke his arms and legs as he left a restaurant in the capital on Monday. Stefanov, editor-in-chief of the online news provider frognews.bg, is recovering in hospital.

Some of his articles exposed links between government officials, politicians and crime bosses.

“The attack is part of the brazen killings happening in the country. Apparently authorities are unable to crack down on the mafia,” the journalists said in a statement.

Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest country, is struggling to shake off a reputation for graft and organised crime.

Its parliament approved a declaration on Thursday, urging police to find and punish Stefanov’s attackers.

“The parliament angrily condemns this brutal assault of a Bulgarian journalist as well as all attacks on freedom of speech,” it said.

Human rights group Amnesty International called the attack a threat to freedom of expression.

At least three journalists have been attacked in Bulgaria in the past year.

In 2006, a bomb exploded in the apartment of an investigative reporter who had uncovered crime and abuse of power among police and state officials. Earlier this year, a gunman killed an author who wrote about the Bulgarian mafia.

The EU has punished Bulgaria for its failure to tackle high-level graft and crime by freezing more than 500 million euros in funding.

Bulgarian journalists call for crackdown on mafia – Thursday, 25 September 2008 17:50 – Reuters – This story was found at: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=28784

The anti-mafia officers confiscated five files for SAPARD Program projects. Meanwhile, the prosecution has initiated an investigation against one of the beneficiaries for presenting fake documentation when applying for EU money.

According to the Deputy Sofia Prosecutor Roman Vasilev, the financial fraud probably amounted to BGN 400 000.

The prosecution requested the five files a month and a half ago but the Agriculture Fund staff has refused to turn them in.

During Monday’s inspection, however, the newly appointed management of the Fund is reported to have cooperated with the police officers.

Vasilev vowed to continue investigating the activities of the new and the former management of the SAPARD Executive Agency and the State Agriculture Fund.

Last week additional BGN 183 M of EU funding under the SAPARD Program were frozen after inspections by OLAF and European Commission experts discovered violations in the SAPARD Agency in May and June.

Thus, almost BGN 270 M of EU money destined for the Bulgarian agriculture had been blocked with many Bulgarian farmers threatening to sue the state for failing to tackle the embezzlement issues, and to provide them with their EU funding.

Bulgaria Anti-Mafia Unit Raids SAPARD Agency over Frauds with EU Money – 7 July 2008, Monday – Novinite Ltd. – This story was found at: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=94882

The news was announced by the Government Information Agency.

The group members are mainly from Chechen origin and have been detained.

The group has been permanently operating in Bulgaria since the end of the 90s and is connected to Bulgarian crime groups in the conducting of joined illegal activities.

In Bulgaria, the group members have participated in illegal arrangements of financial relationships among debtors through pressure and harassment, in racketeering and extortion, negotiations during illegal trade of goods of possible dual use and arms, contraband export of B Bulgarian cigarettes, money laundering, VAT draining, schemes for the illegal acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship and residency in Bulgaria.

The group is also suspected in the financing of terrorist forces in Chechnya.

SANS is continuing their wok into the bringing to light of other individuals in Bulgaria who have been connected to the Chechnya mafia’s activities.

Bulgaria Security Agency Uncovers Chechen Mafia Group – 30 May 2008, Friday – Novinite Ltd. – http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=93628

Well, what was the minister was quoted as saying that while there was no mafia, there was a very serious problem with organised crime. If he was quoted correctly, it hardly seems worthwhile even accepting that he was making an attempt at making a semantic difference between a “mafia” and a very serious organised crime problem.

That there are business people in Bulgaria who have controversial reputations, to invoke the euphemism used by some media, is beyond question. That they are driven around in dark-hued luxury vehicles and affect modes of dress and behaviour apparently drawn from bad videos about mobsters is hardly a point that can be disputed. Moreover, that very serious organised crime problem includes at very least illicit business practices and certainly other sins, including the trafficking of people, illegal drugs and weapons, money laundering and, oh yes, assassinations. If it looks like a mafia, behaves like a mafia…well, Mr Mikov?

But let us not be too harsh on the new minister. Maybe he was just making a semantic point. Let us consider his stated plans, those that have emerged pending a more formal outline of what he plans to do with his new powers. Several media reports, apparently all emanating from the same source, have said that he intends replacing some senior law enforcement officials on the grounds that they are not up to their jobs, doing a shake-up of the traffic police to clean it of the corrupt, putting more police on the beat in the streets, and improving salaries in law enforcement. All of these intentions are praiseworthy, and it is to be hoped that they are followed through thoroughly. It may be noted that these steps do not differ, in the letter at least, from measures that his predecessor, Roumen Petkov, either took or at some point said that he would. After Petkov took office, it was noticeable that there were more police on the streets, even though the numbers seemed to tail off after a while. Visible policing is a good thing in itself, if only because it discourages petty crime, however much Bulgaria’s “very serious problem” is organised crime, which requires a higher-level, specialist and forensic approach to combat it. Cleaning out the corrupt should be the business of any interior minister, and veteran observers will recall that Petkov occasionally emitted statistics about law enforcement officials dismissed for corruption. Again, increasing police salaries is a good thing in itself, but the effect may be nothing more than to make policing a more attractive occupation. There is evidence from other countries that increasing salaries does not necessarily mean lessening corruption.

If Mikov is to have any effect on the view to be taken by the European Commission in its report expected in June, he would have to act very quickly indeed. He might also take note of the point made by Atanas Atanassov of the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, who said that the problem in law enforcement was not a structural one, but was rooted in the personnel of law enforcement. It is a valid point, and few who want Bulgaria to succeed in the fight against organised crime could argue against a strategy that would see the corrupt and incompetent either penalised, dismissed or both, with the gaps filled by better-paid and highly motivated police. If this could be done, along with employing the best technical and legal minds against the very serious problem of organised crime, Mikov’s purported statement about there being no mafia in Bulgaria would be relegated to being a footnote.

No mafia, Mr Mikov? – Sofia Echo Media Ltd. – 15:00 Fri 02 May 2008 – http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/from-the-editor-no-mafia-mr-mikov/id_29059/catid_27

Mikov stated the label “mafia” was exaggerated in an interview for the Bulgarian private Darik Radio.

He did stress, however, that the country had a serious problem with organized crime, and that there would be clearly defined measures to combat it.

“We want to win the society as an ally that is why we are going to make the measures wide-known publicly”, Mihov declared.

The new Interior Minister also announced that within 15 days his ministry was going to make clear its position on the use of tapping devices.

“We need a new solution on the tapping devices issue that will prevent any abuses”, Mihov said, calling of the District Courts chairs, who authorize their use in Bulgaria, to pay attention to the motives for the request to use them.

Mihail Mikov was sworn into office last Thursday after the Bulgarian Parliament approved the proposed cabinet staff changes.

He has degree in law from Sofia University “St. Kliment of Ohrid”, where he is currently an associate professor of criminal law.

Mikov has been a Member of Parliament from the Bulgarian Socialist Party since 1997, representing the northwestern Bulgarian district of Vidin.

In the 40th Bulgarian Parliament (2005- ), Mikov has been the Chair of the Parliamentary Group of the leftist Coalition for Bulgaria – a coalition led by the senior partner in the current Bulgarian government, the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

New Interior Minister: There’s Definitely No Mafia in Bulgaria – 26 April 2008, Saturday – http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=92627

Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Rumen Petkov has resigned amid increasing criticism of the Government over its failure to combat organised crime.

The move comes after a scandal in which two senior officials of the Interior Ministry were accused of passing classified information to alleged crime bosses.

Many European Union member states were sceptical about Bulgaria joining the bloc in 2007 because of a perception that organised criminal gangs controlled large parts of the economy, and were operating in a climate of impunity.

The Bulgarian Government says it has given the issue top priority, but has not been able to point to many tangible successes.

Mafia-style killings have been a hallmark of Bulgarian life since the collapse of communism in 1989, and successful prosecutions been almost unknown.

Last weekend alone two prominent Bulgarians – an author of books about the mafia and the head of a company maintaining nuclear plants – were shot dead by unknown attackers.

Bulgarian Minister steps down amid ‘mafia’ scandal – Posted Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:27am AEST – http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/14/2215624.htm?section=justin

Seconds later he was lying fatally wounded in the street in front of the Pliska hotel in the centre of the city. He had been hit by three bullets.

This weekend police were investigating the theory that Stoev had been hunted by one of the characters from his nine crime books, including three about the country’s mafia “godfathers”.

Stoev, 35, claimed that his books, which mixed fact and fiction to reveal the secrets of some of the country’s most notorious crimes, were based on his own experiences in the formative years of the ruthless Bulgarian mafia in the 1990s.

As a teenager training to be a wrestler he attended Sofia’s “Olympic Hopes” school. With the collapse of communism in 1989 the school was closed and the wrestlers formed a gang that has become one of the most dangerous in Europe. Stoev later turned his back on the mafia and began to write.

In a country renowned for brutal contract killings, he took the startling decision to expose alleged mafia characters in his books, making no attempt to disguise their identities.

In Godfather 3, Stoev wrote about a prominent secret service officer and politician. “This is the book that will get me killed,” he told his publisher when he handed over the manuscript.

In another Godfather book, Stoev wrote about an alleged mafia boss who had supposedly offered him £240,000 to kill an underworld figure. According to the novel, Stoev refused and went to the police. He knew the risks: another witness against this man had “got a bullet in the head”, he wrote.

Stoev’s publisher, Dimitar Zlatkov, claimed the interior ministry was a “moral killer” for failing to protect him. This is denied by the ministry, which claims Stoev had refused to testify and had exaggerated his mafia past.

What is clear is that Stoev had become convinced that he was about to die. In the weeks before he was shot he told the press he would be murdered. “My life is in danger. I’ve been protecting myself but now there is a serious threat,” he said on a television show.

According to his editor, Stoev, the divorced father of a seven-year-old daughter, had hired bodyguards and frequently changed his car and telephone number.

On Thursday he was buried in a private funeral at Bistrica, nine miles outside Sofia. The public prosecutor’s office said it will question three mafia bosses featured in his books.

Stoev’s killer is unlikely to face justice. His murder is one of more than 150 contract killings in seven years – with no convictions.

Writer Georgi Stoev’s dies in suspected mafia killing – Nicola Smith – April 13, 2008 – From The Sunday Times – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3736050.ece