Dec 31 2006
GREAT SKIING AND BEACHES, BUT BEWARE THE MAFIA: EU WELCOMES ITS NEWEST MEMBERS
Even by the theatrical standards of the Bulgarian underworld, the double shooting of suspected mafia rivals on the same day was pure Hollywood.
Dimitar Vuchev was driving with his wife in central Sofia when his Audi was riddled with bullets. Hours later, when Radoslav Velkov presented himself at a police station to answer questions about the morning’s events, a gunman was waiting to blast him in the head.
Both men survived but Bulgaria’s image took another hit.
In many ways, the country’s post-communist history is a success story with steady growth, a stable democracy and a booming tourist industry based on beautiful beaches and cheap skiing.
Visitors also enjoy Bulgaria’s beaches (Alamy)
It has, however, been blighted by rampant corruption and contract killings, as feuding gangs fight for control of the heroin route to Europe from Afghanistan, as well as a slice of the trade in illicit arms, prostitution and people-trafficking.
On Monday Bulgaria’s problems become Europe’s problems. Along with Romania, it completes the enlargement of the EU to include all the former Warsaw Pact countries except the Soviet Union, extending the community’s eastern frontier to the Black Sea.
Klaus Jansen, who analysed Bulgarian crime for the European Commission’s anti-fraud office, fears that Europe will be at risk of organised crime. “Crime bosses in Bulgaria will look for expats in other EU countries, just like the Italian Mafia does,” he said.
The British Government agrees. A leaked Cabinet Office memo last month said: “There is a concern that free movement will encourage people from Bulgaria and Romania to come to the UK, some of whom may be drawn towards organised criminal activities.”
Britain, along with most of the 15 “old” EU states, has imposed temporary restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian workers, but there will be nothing to stop the self-employed or tourists from travelling and, in any case, the criminals have not been waiting for January 1. Bulgarian godfathers already run prostitution rings in Brussels and Madrid, as well as organised car thefts across Spain, which is home to 100,000 Bulgarians and up to 550,000 Romanians.
But EU officials fear that the new member’s police will not be able to contain the drug-trafficking and people-smuggling (Reuters)
Mobster oligarchs are using EU membership to legitimise their activities, according Philip Gounev, of Sofia’s Centre for the Study of Democracy. “London is the richest city in Europe and there are criminals from all over the world working there, so some from Bulgaria will try their luck,” he said.
“But I do not see a wave of organised crime coming from Bulgaria. In the past three or four years, many of these guys went ‘legal’. You see construction along the sea coast and all these ski resorts — it is the same way they do it in the Costa del Sol, laundering money through construction.”
Senior police and politicians in Sofia admit privately that they lost control of their country to organised crime in the mid-1990s, when UN sanctions against Yugoslavia made smuggling petrol and weapons highly profitable. This, combined with hasty post-communist privatisations, led to the advent of Russian-style oligarchs — many of them former Olympic sportsmen and secret agents, who were the only people free to travel under communism.
The real challenge for Bulgaria now is to stamp out the corruption embedded by the years of gangsterism. The EU has set stringent targets and there are signs that the country is beginning to restore its image. An anti-corruption office was opened in March and the young Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, has launched a series of high- profile cases, including charges against the head of the state heating company who allegedly transferred €1.6 million to personal bank accounts.
Valentin Petrov, a former science teacher who became chief of the Bulgarian police a year ago, is another of the new breed of law enforcers sick of his country’s reputation.
The number of mafia killings this year has fallen to just eight from an annual peak of 35, and Mr Petrov, who works closely with Scotland Yard, points out that the average murder rate is 2.2 per 100,000 people — below the EU average — and that the general crime rate is a fifth of that in Britain. “We are not an oasis of peacefulness but it would be wrong to present us like freaks or killers with 13th-century conditions,” he said.
Nonetheless, Scotland Yard is sufficiently concerned to deploy a team of detectives specialised in organised crime to try to block the flow of dirty money into the London property market and tackle people-trafficking networks.
Despite its 53 gun shops, Sofia does not feel like a city under siege from organised crime. About 400,000 British holidaymakers a year experience a very different country, and 1,200 liked it enough this year to apply for naturalisation. As Mr Petrov said: “The English are buying property in Bulgaria, so this shows that they feel safe and peaceful here.”
No job? Then please don’t come
Television and radio adverts warning of the dangers of working illegally in Britain are being broadcast in Romania and Bulgaria
The Government has spent £300,000 highlighting employment restrictions and the high cost of living
British authorities are also offering guidance on how to get jobs legally. The campaign includes a free hotline, a website, billboards and leaflets
The Home Office estimates that up to 140,000 Bulgarians and Romanians will travel to Britain next year, including up to 45,000 “undesirables”
Border controls have been strengthened and there will be greater use of technology to make sure passports and identity cards are genuine
The Home Office will not be able to deport Romanians or Bulgarians caught working illegally — even if they have been fined or jailed
| David Charter in Sofia – The Times December 30, 2006 – Times Newspapers Ltd. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2523486_2,00.html
