It is very difficult to understand at this stage what is happening. We have reason to be skeptical. At the time, many years ago, Bulgaria was a phenomenon in terms of how the borders of drug markets coincided with the borders of police structures. At that time, my institute published a map of Sofia in which the borders of the district administrations coincided with the borders of drug distribution. This was around 2001. Before that, the way drugs were sold was with dots.
This was commented by Tihomir Bezlov, chief expert on the "Security" program at the Center for the Study of Democracy, in the program "The Day Begins" on BNT.
Bezlov noted that by 2007-2009 the drug market had collapsed as a structure. According to him, even then there was such a problem in the district administrations, but now things have changed and if there is a cover-up, it is at very low levels.
"What is happening at the level of the head of a district administration in Sofia is problematic, of course, as long as it is proven. Skepticism arises from the fact that this level is often connected with politics, i.e. there are some political contacts, patronages, preferences there and this leads to counteractions", Bezlov also pointed out.
According to him, the chain between the low-level perpetrators, low-level police officers from Lovech who work in Sofia and a head of a regional administration is very long and therefore will be very difficult to prove.
"One of the reasons for doubting this case is an old figure who appeared in the media publications - Stuklarya, who was linked to accusations five years ago. This is a very old participant who testified against the so-called Chukovet gang in Lyulin. So these are old acquaintances", he added.