Bulgarian authorities seize 320 kg of cocaine

The Bulgarian authorities seized more than 320 kg of cocaine in Students’ city in Sofia on May 27. The drugs were found in an apartment rented by a man who was detained on May 24 with 40kg of cocaine in his car.

His name is Nikolai Petrov and he was remanded by a decision of the Sofia City Court today. Among the packages, there was cocaine with a purity of over 75%, which is considered by experts to be extremely rare.

In the courtroom, Nikolai Petrov's lawyer tried to explain that he was only the driver of the car and did not know what was in the boot, although Petrov himself admitted to the police that there was exactly 40 kg of cocaine in the car.

During a search of the detainee's home, investigators found a contract for renting an apartment in a block of flats in the Students’ City. It is located near the place where the man was arrested on May 24. The keys to the apartment were found in his car and so the police managed to enter the apartment, where they found 327 packages.

Antoaneta Pancheva, Prosecutor: 248 packages were found in the bedroom and 79 packages in the kitchen. The total amount is from 320 to 327 kg, given that each package weighs about a kilogramme. Field tests were performed on site, indicating the substance was cocaine.

Georgi Hadzhiev, director of Sofia Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior explained that the packages were marked with eight different stamps which means that this cocaine is of different type of purity, depending on the stamp that is placed. The price of 1 kg is different, depending on the quality of the cocaine, he added.

Initial data from studies on various samples shows that the drug’s purity is from 68% to over 75%. At wholesale prices, its value is estimated at 10 - 11 million euros. Sold to end customers, however, it can bring revenue of over 40 million euros.

Georgi Hadzhiev: Part of it was intended for the market in Asia, another part for Western Europe, and a very small part of it remains for distribution in the country.

According to investigators, 35 to 40 kg of drugs were intended for the Bulgarian market. They were to be sold in the summer mainly in the country’s big Black Sea resorts, where cocaine is in great demand by foreign tourists.

The drug probably came through an established channel, which had been used previously. Our sources claim that the drugs were imported through the port of Thessaloniki.

An electronic scale and a professional packing machine were found in the apartment rented by Nikolai Petrov. The analysis shows that most likely the drug was distributed in packages in this apartment.

Investigators have information that the guarantor of the shipment is a businessman with good contacts in the criminal world, who has doubled his bodyguard security, because such losses are punishable.