site.btaBulgarian Law Enforcers Part of International Probe into Website Used by Crime Groups

Bulgaria’s General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDCOC) has joined an international investigation into a chat website believed to be a channel of communication for organized crime groups, the Interior Ministry said in a press release on Thursday.  

The investigation, led by the French authorities, was launched in December 2023 after more than 23,000 legal proceedings related to the website, coco.gg, had been initiated between January 1, 2021, and May 7, 2024. France collaborated with law enforcement from Bulgaria, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Hungary.

The website, dubbed "a den of predators" by the French media, was shut down on June 25. According to the investigators, it had enabled offenders to coordinate child sexual abuse, pimping, prostitution, drug trafficking, money laundering, criminal conspiracy and homicide, among others. More than 480 victims are reported to have been affected by criminal activity carried out by users of the website.

The investigation is conducted by the Paris prosecution office’s National Jurisdiction against Organized Crime (JUNALCO). The international operation is coordinated by the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust).