site.btaBulgaria, Turkiye Prepare Joint Operation Against Migrant Trafficking

The Bulgarian Interior Ministry is preparing a large-scale action against migrant trafficking in cooperation with Turkiye, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said in Parliament on Thursday. "The traffickers operate mainly from Turkish territory, the cash flows serving this illegal activity are concentrated there," Demerdzhiev said.

He noted that in the course of preparing for the raid they had also found evidence concerning the case in which a police officer was detained transporting migrants in a van. "I find it satisfactory that my colleagues, seeing his service card, did not hesitate to handcuff him, detain him and bring him to justice by handing him over to the prosecution authorities. His superiors did not hesitate to suspend him and initiate disciplinary proceedings," Demerdzhiev said. 

Referring to the information requested by the Bulgarian Interior Ministry from the Russian Interior Ministry regarding investigative journalist Hristo Grozev, who was declared wanted by Russia, Demerdzhiev said that the information had not yet been received.