The director of the National Customs Agency, Petya Bankova and her deputy Ludmil Marinov have been detained for 24 hours, BGNES reported. A total of seven people were detained after today's Bulgarian State Agency for National Security (SANS) special operation.
SANS and the Anti-Corruption Commission conducted a special operation at the Bulgarian National Customs Agency.
The central office of the Customs Agency in the Bulgarian capital was stormed by police and gendarmerie. Employees of the Anti-Corruption Commission and SANS entered the top offices of the agency, while downstairs no one was aware of what was happening. The action is of SANS and is carried out as a matter of urgency, announced lawyer Adelina Natina.
The lawyer of Petya Bankova, head of the Customs Agency, walked out with Bankova when she was taken out of the Customs Agency building.
"At the moment, this is the first special operation of the Commission for Combating Corruption. It is being carried out under the conditions of urgency. SANS is performing the special op", added Adelina Natina. She emphasized that Bankova is a former employee of SANS, who even then had "bad working relations with former director Plamen Tonchev".
Documents and notes regarding smuggling channels were seized from Bankova's office.
According to information in the media, the operation is related to the investigation of Nikolay Nikolov-Paskal and his connections through which smuggling was carried out. Bankova denied knowing him. "I don't know Pascal, I don't even know who he is. I want to stop the smuggling, which is currently hindering our entire country," she claims.
There were investigators at several other addresses in Sofia, including a hotel in the Lozenets district. “The check was directed at a hotel guest who checked in on Tuesday. Law enforcement only spoke to him without disturbing other hotel guests. The person's car was searched in the parking lot of the hotel. The guest is a male Bulgarian citizen", said the manager of the hotel, Kaloyan Nikolov.
Searches were also conducted at addresses in Haskovo and Svilengrad, Nova TV reported. Three locations were searched on the territory of Svilengrad. All of them are related in some way to former employees of the National Customs Agency. Gendarmerie teams remained at two of the addresses throughout the day. /BGNES
