site.btaUPDATED Organized Crime Control Law Enforcer Suspected of Spying for Russia Detained

Prosecutors raided the Interior Ministry's General Directorate Combating Organized Crime on Monday after the security services alerted them about an Interior Ministry employee having sent information by electronic means to persons linked with Russia, the Bulgarian prosecution service said in a press release on Monday.

Searches at the General Directorate are in progress. The law enforcer will be charged shortly.

Later in the day, the Interior Ministry's Secretary General, Chief Commissioner Zhivko Kotsev, confirmed to journalists in Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria) that an employee of the General Directorate Combating Organized Crime had been detained on suspicion of spying in favour of Russia. The person's actions had been monitored for several months but less than a year, the Secretary General specified. 

"The raid resulted from joint actions of the State Agency for National Security, the General Directorate Combating Organized Crime, the Sofia City Prosecution Office and the Interior Ministry's Internal Security Directorate," Kotsev pointed out.

He said that the media will be briefed when handling the case has been finalized.