site.btaEvelin "Brendo" Banev Wanted with European Arrest Warrant

Sofia, July 23 (BTA) - The Sofia City Prosecution Office has issued a European Arrest Warrant to track down Evelin "Brendo" Banev, who has to serve a six-year prison sentence, the prosecuting magistracy said Monday.

Banev is sentenced for being part of a criminal ring in Bulgaria, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, the British Virgin Islands, Switzerland and Austria. The ring was organized to engage in financial operations with money about which Banev was aware had been acquired through drug trafficking.

Evelin "Brendo" Banev was arrested in 2012 in a Bulgarian-Italian law enforcement operation. In 2013, he received a 20-year prison sentence in Italy for involvement in an international cocaine-trafficking ring. On July 11, 2014, the Sofia Appellate Court acquitted him of money laundering and drug trafficking charges by reversing an earlier 7.5-year prison sentence imposed on him by a first-instance court.

Banev's sentence has been effective since the end of April and the Sofia City Prosecution Office promptly ordered his detention and imprisonment. He is also forbidden to leave the country.

The European Arrest Warrant was issued after he was not found at his known addresses and his location is unknown. Local national and international arrest warrants have consecutively been issued for Banev.