[size=85:32uq26va]Sofia Echo Fri, Aug 26 2011

International drug trafficking ring bust, Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry says


An international drug trafficking organised crime group has been bust, including through the arrest of three Bulgarians, with police in various European and Latin American countries also taking suspects into custody, the Interior Ministry in Sofia said on August 26 2011.

One of the Bulgarians was arrested at Spain’s Barajas Airport, allegedly carrying 5.4kg of cocaine.

Two other Bulgarians were arrested in Rousse on the Danube.

The Interior Ministry said that the group had been under surveillance for several months. This had included monitoring trips abroad by a number of Bulgarians to discern the roles of the various members of the organised crime group.

Bulgarian police, raiding several addresses, found SIM cards registered to Bulgarian and foreign mobile phone numbers, as well as other items implicating the suspects in organised crime, the Interior Ministry said.

A day earlier, in a separate operation, police in Sofia arrested alleged druglord Hristo Baikov. Police alleged that Baikov controlled the illegal drug market in a number of Sofia residential areas, including the upmarket neighbourhoods of Boyana and Dragalevtsi.

Baikov was arrested, at his home along with three other men, after a complaint by a construction company of alleged extortion.

Earlier, Bulgarian media reports said that people had complained to police about Baikov’s bodyguards ostentatiously displaying firearms while escorting him.

In another separate case, Plamen "
Kela"
Diskov was arrested in Portugal. Diskov was found guilty in 2002 of taking out a contract on business executive Dimitar Stoyanov, and sentenced to 20 years’ jail, but eluded police for years, variously being spotted in South Africa and in Brazil.

Diskov was arrested in Cascais. Bulgarian media said that ruses he had used to evade arrest included having had cosmetic surgery and having used a number of different passports.