Bulgarian mafia 1 The Bulgarian mafia is an informal term to describe any number of organized crime groups originating from Bulgaria. Bulgarian organised crime groups are involved in a wide range of activities, including drug trafficking, cigarette smuggling, human trafficking, prostitution, illicit antiquities trafficking, extortion (often under the cover of ostensible security and insurance companies) and the arms trade. They appear to have connections with the Russian Mafia, Serbian Mafia, and the Italian Cosa Nostra. Bulgarian organised crime groups mainly use security and insurance companies such as SIC and VIS as fronts for criminal activities. Belgium and The Netherlands also saw an expansion of Bulgarian organized crime due to the large-scale immigration of Bulgarian Turks, descendants of indigenous Turkic settlers and Turkified Roma. Bulgarian Turkish clans are involved in drug and human trafficking, prostitution, fraud and extortion and have thus paved the way for other groups composed of Bulgarians and/or Bulgarian Turks.Much of the post-Communist Bulgarian mafia originates from the professional sportsmen and especially the wrestlers of the Communist period (1944--1989). The Iliev brothers, Krasimir "Big Margin" Marinov and Iliya Pavlov were all students of the school for future champions "Olympic Hopes" (Bulgarian: "Олимпийски надежди"). In post-1990 Bulgaria, the word борец ("wrestler") came to denote a mafia man (a common synonym is мутра (mutra), literally "mug"). The image of the Bulgarian "mug", including a sturdy physical build, a black suit, sunglasses, a shaved head, and golden jewellery, became iconic for the so-called Bulgarian "transition" (to market economy). They would also drive a car with a license plate with double numbers. The mafia came to control much of Bulgarian business, so the word "businessman" acquired similar undertones. The "mugs" also infiltrated Bulgarian politics (it was often alleged that SIC and VIS were connected to the two main parties of the 1990s, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Union of Democratic Forces, respectively). As the UDF government (1997--2001) made the registration of the criminal insurance businesses more difficult, much of their networks and personnel were integrated into existing legal insurance firms, while at the same time the principal bosses moved the focus of their attention to smuggling, trade and privatization.

• published: 16 Oct 2013
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