This morning at 7.30 Evelyn Banev-Brendo appeared at the entrance of the Sofia prison with his lawyer. It was the same with his ID card. He has to serve a sentence of imprisonment for 6 years. Colleagues have taken all measures to have him examined at the Ministry of Internal Affairs hospital, after which he will be sent to the Sofia prison to serve his sentence. This is what the director of the National Police General Directorate told journalists. chief commissioner Atanas Ilkov on the occasion of the surprise appearance today in front of the Sofia Central Prison of Evelin Banev, who was declared internationally wanted and suspected of being a drug trafficker, Novini.bg reported.
So far, we have taken steps to establish the likely ways in which he could enter Bulgaria. Did he have forged documents or did he enter somewhere along the green border – we will give this information at a later stage, after the colleagues have completed all the necessary actions, Ilkov said.
He specified that, at this stage, Brendo did not give any concrete explanations as to why he surrendered to the law enforcement authorities: "He probably changed his mind in some way. At this stage, the colleagues have not spoken to him, because the other procedure regarding the medical examinations and his placement in the places of deprivation of liberty is ongoing. After that, work will begin on this topic, which is important to us.
When asked if there is any information why Evelin Banev chose this exact moment to surrender, the director of GDNP noted: "We cannot do our analyzes in such a short time. We can say that at a slightly later stage, after we compare all the data we have from his search for the last 6 years, and based on what he will say, we will be able to make some judgment about what made it necessary to appeared this morning through the prison in Sofia".
In response to a question whether Brendo's handover could be related to the recent cases of failed shipments with large quantities of cocaine, including through Bulgaria, Atanas Ilkov said: "I do not exclude this as a hypothesis. Places of imprisonment are a good place for someone to hide so that they are out of reach of enemies with whom they have some sort of unsettled relationship. This is very likely, but at this time we cannot say that this is the reason".
We remind you that Evelin Banev, nicknamed Brendo, disappeared shortly after receiving 6 years in prison for money laundering. In 2018, he was declared an international wanted man by the Bulgarian authorities, who did not find him at his address to take him to prison. Even then, Romania was looking for him because of a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking, and in Italy he is waiting for 20 years in prison again for drugs in the "Cocaine Kings" affair.