site.btaOver 30 People Arrested in Bulgaria and Spain as Part of Bulgarian Criminal Group Involved in Fraudulent Use of Payment Instruments

Over 30 People Arrested in Bulgaria and Spain as
Part of Bulgarian Criminal Group
Involved in Fraudulent Use of Payment Instruments


Sofia, October 2 (BTA) - The State Agency for National Security
(SANS), the Specialized Prosecution Office and the Spanish
police's unit for Eastern Europe, working in close cooperation
with the Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, have conducted a
large scale operation on September 30 on Bulgarian and Spanish
territory, code-named "Imperium", SANS said on Wednesday. A
large organized criminal group, involved in fraudulent use of
payment instruments was busted.

The coordinated operation was conducted in the Bulgarian regions
of Sofia, Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria), Bourgas (on the
Black Sea) and Silistra (on the Danube), as well as Malaga,
Spain, and resulted in 31 arrests (26 of which in Bulgaria) and
two searches in Spain.

A total of eight specialized facilities were discovered, two of
which had very modern and complex equipment. Thousands of micro
cameras, credit card readers, microelements and electronics were
seized. The authorities also found equipment for 3D printing
for producing plastic details, to be installed in ATMs and POS
terminals with the purpose of compromising them. Hundreds of
ready to use bank cards have also been seized.

The operation was carried out by the Bulgarian and Spanish
authorities through coordination centres in Sofia and Madrid.

All searches and arrests were carried out simultaneously. The
criminal group worked by collecting financial information from
compromised ATMs and POS terminals across Europe. This
information was subsequently used to make copies of the cards,
which were used to withdraw money from countries in the Middle
East and Latin America, SANS said. PK/MY