Stefan Bakalov has been appointed Deputy Director of the "Customs" Agency by order of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Galab Donev. Bakalov has over 35 years of experience in the "Customs" Agency system in the field of combating drug trafficking and customs intelligence and investigation. He has held various positions in the customs system. He has more than 24 years of management experience as Head of the "Fighting Drug Trafficking" Department. He has a Master's degree in “International Relations“.
He has undergone numerous international trainings - in the USA, including at the Drug Enforcement Agency Academy in Quantico (USA), in the Secret Service and others, as well as in various European countries. He is a representative of the “Customs“ Agency in the “Pompidou“ Group of the Council of Europe. In his role as an expert to the UN – Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) he has dozens of missions in countries in Africa, Asia and Europe on monitoring, training, creating and organizing police and customs structures to combat drug trafficking.
His appointment is in line with the priorities of the “Customs“ Agency to strengthen the fight against drug trafficking, increased coordination with national and international law enforcement agencies and development of the administrative and operational capacity of customs in the field of combating customs violations and crimes.
Georgi Gospodinov returns as Head of the Kapitan Andreevo Customs Point. Gospodinov has over 14 years of experience in the customs administration. In the period 2021 - 2024 he was the titular Head of the Kapitan Andreevo Customs Point, after which he was seconded to perform his duties in other units of Burgas Customs, including as Head of the Burgas Port-Center Customs Point. He has a diploma in public administration. His master's degree is in national security with the topic “Essence of customs control at border checkpoints“.