Bulgarians admit role in Balkan route traficking

By Liliana Semerdjieva

SOFIA, Oct 28 (Reuters) Bulgaria, on a longestablished drugs smuggling
route from the Middle East to Western Europe, said on Tuesday its own
people were playing a supporting role to powerful narcotics traffickers.

Interior Ministry chief secretary Bozhidar Popov said more than 1,600
Bulgarian citizens were involved in drug smuggling and 112 Bulgarian firms
were used as ``covers'' for drug trafficking.

The drug wave which swept Europe in the 1960's largely bypassed Bulgaria,
then ruled by a hardline communist regime, toppled in 1989.

``In the last few years Bulgarian citizens and (Bulgarian) criminal groups
are getting involved in drugs trafficking,'' Popov told a news conference.

``At the beginning they were functioning only as a security to drug
traffickers' channels while now there are organised groups setting up
channels for drug trafficking in Bulgaria,'' he said, adding that the
Bulgarian groups had been controlled by powerful international criminal
groups.

Turkish, Iranian, Arab, Nigerian and recently South African groups operate
on the classical Balkan route, setting up facilities for storage and
redistribution of drugs mainly to western Europe, Popov said.

Apart from Bulgarians, more than 1,000 Turks staying in Bulgaria had been
under surveillance for participating in illegal drug trafficking, along
with some 100 ethnic Albanians, some 100 immigrants from Arab countries,
Iranians, Italians, Nigerians, Romanians, Greeks and South Africans.

Popov said selling of drugs had also flourished in the last two or three
years, spreading to smaller towns. Most of the dealers had been Bulgarians.

The ministry predicted increasing use and trade of narcotics in Bulgaria.

``Competition will become more fierce and conflicts such as shootings and
killings will breach public order,'' Popov said.

Bulgaria has seized far more drugs this year than during the same period
last year, Popov said, declining to elaborate.

Bulgaria seized 14.4 tonnes (31,752 lb) of drugs in 1996, including 195.5
kg (431 lb) of heroin. Officials say it is impossible to tell how much
slips through the net.