Stanimir Florov, former Chief of the Main Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime (GDBOB) admits that he has been a friend for 30 years and very close to the murdered businessman from the city of Veliko Tarnovo, Petar Hristov.<\/p>\n
This is the first, albeit not public, acknowledgement of Petar Hristov’s close relations over the years with people in power. So far, in their comments on the execution style murder in Sofia of their sponsor, the ruling party politicians have either dodged or downplayed questions about his closeness to their Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB.<\/p>\n
In addition, it seems that this closeness had provided protection for Hristov\u2019s business. At the time when Florov led the GDBOP, Peter Hristov had been audited and it had been established that everything with his business had been \u201cvery clean\u201d since 1996.<\/p>\n
All this transpires from a recording of a conversation between the former head of the GDBOP and journalist Katya Ilieva. Florov called Ilieva after her recent participation in the TV evening show \u201cSlavi\u2019s Show\u201d, of host Slavi Trifonov, where she criticized the capacity of the Interior Ministry to find Peter Hristov\u2019s assassin and commented on the operations against the organized crime groups \u201cThe Killers\u201d and \u201cThe Impudent\u201d. Hristov had taken an informant from the underground to the Interior Ministry, helping to detain members of the latter group, she said.<\/p>\n
In the same conversation, Florov states bluntly that the Interior Ministry\u2019s system is not functioning<\/strong> and he is very well aware of this fact. What is more, Florov explains that there is no likelihood at all that it will start functioning. Such a statement sounds shocking against the backdrop of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and former Interior Minister and second in command in the ruling GERB, Tsvetan Tsvetanov bragging some years ago that their government had been successful in the fight against organized crime in the country.<\/p>\n The notorious inefficiency of Bulgarian police and their failure to solve even one contract murder case since the fall of the Communist regime<\/strong> are obvious signs of the malfunctioning system of the Interior Ministry<\/strong>. However, this did not prevent the Prime Minister from raising once again the salaries of the police officers and giving the Ministry another BGN 100 million from the budget against the backdrop of the tragic state of the healthcare and education sectors. Bivol’s revelations of police officers who work as thugs in their spare time<\/a> and of an organized crime group dealing with illegal drugs, theft, racketeering, and wet works with links to high-ranking officials at the Interior Ministry<\/a> did not cause any reaction by the authorities.<\/p>\n Bivol is urging foreign politicians and observers to pay attention to the confessions (though laced with profanities) about inefficient police work by high-ranking Interior Ministry officials such as Florov. <\/strong><\/p>\n Florov’s words also include his views on the country\u2019s state of affairs, which he describes with the following: \u201cEverything is dominated by one thing \u2013 dough. You shell it out – everything is OK; you don\u2019t shell it out – nothing is OK.\u201d<\/p>\n Questioned by Katya Ilieva on a possible conflict of interest over his GDBOP post and the audit of the business of his long-time friend, Florov denied having had personal relations with the businessman, adding that they had become friends after the audit and refuting his own words.<\/p>\n In addition, Katya Ilieva<\/strong> was subjected to an attack with vulgarities and threats<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bivol’s Director Assen Yordanov<\/strong>, who also took part in the TV show, became an unintended witness of the verbal assault.<\/p>\n FrogNews<\/em>, where Katya Ilieva works, said they had alerted the Prosecutor General about threats.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n