site.btaDeputy Head of Anti-Mob Enforcers Unit Removed over Contraband Cigarette Ring Operation

Kalin Litov is no longer the Deputy Director of the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDCOC), Interior Minister Daniel Mitov told reporters in the corridors of Parliament on Thursday.

Commenting on allegations that the Interior Ministry had covered up a smuggling ring in Plovdiv, Mitov said that a definitive conclusion will be reached once the institutions involved have completed their investigations. "This is part of a much larger inquiry," he added, noting that all relevant findings have been handed over to the prosecuting magistracy.

Mitov also recalled that the case had been subjected to an internal review ordered by his predecessor Atanas Ilkov, and that he had received the report with the investigation’s results.

On Wednesday, tension flared up between Interior Minister Daniel Mitov and the opposition Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition over a faulty crackdown against a cigarette smuggling ring in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second largest city. It started with the publishing on social media by the BOEC civic movement of a video and screenshots of a WhatsApp chat, purportedly between police officers and their superiors, revealing attempts by police chiefs to stop an ongoing anti-smuggling operation and tip-off the smugglers of the impending arrests. The rank-and-file officers defied the order and went ahead with the raid against the smugglers, risking their careers. That led to a haul of contraband cigarettes worth BGN 8 million, according to BOEC. The activists also say that the contraband cigarettes were meant to be distributed on markets in France and the UK.

Earlier on Wednesday, GERB leader Boyko Borissov commented that Interior Minister Daniel Mitov "should sweep away everyone [in the Interior Ministry] connected with this smuggling case".

The Continue the Change party said that they would push for the resignation of Interior Minister Mitov if, once again, his approach is to "sweep things under the rug instead of investigating them".