We return to a criminal plot from 16 years ago. Then, for a series of kidnappings and torture of the victims, members of the "Insolent" group were detained and convicted.
On August 13, we learned that three of them - people with nicknames, had disappeared on Sunday. The report was filed by their relatives, according to public statements - their cars and phones were found.
Who are the “Insolent“, who are their victims and where can we look for the reasons for their disappearance.
The kidnapping group was dismantled during the time of former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.
For two years, the “Insolent“ have been demanding a ransom of a total of about 45 million euros. They take – 3,081,000 thousand euros.
Many of the victims were awarded non-pecuniary damages totaling about 1 million leva, but none of them have received a penny to this day.
In the houses of horrors rented by “The Insolent: over the years, the son of a former transport minister, businessmen, sports bosses, families have fallen victim.
“This is worse than murder, in our case they kill you repeatedly, they kill you in the fact that you think whether they will now cut off my finger or ear, how will I behave, how will I bear it, how will I get through the next night, what are they doing, what can be done to free me“, commented the victim Kiro Kirov.
“The moment I get off, lock myself in the car and start to cross the street to enter the entrance, a bus stops and I hear “Don't move, police“. I raised my hands and after they pushed me into the van, they put a hood over my head and then it became clear to me that they were not police, but that they were kidnapping me“, said Angel Bonchev.
“These kidnappings were not only for money, but also to punish certain business circles and people. This is one thing. The second unknown in the whole equation is where is the money?“, commented investigative journalist Slavi Angelov.
In December 2009, the end of the “Nagli“ group was put to an end with two spectacular actions by the Ministry of Interior.
25 people were arrested for 18 kidnappings.
Now Prokopi Prokopiev-Kulturista, Ivaylo Evtimov-Yozhi and Daniel Dimitrov-Releto are missing.
“Yozhi and Poli Kulturista were the basis of the organized crime group, which in the period 2007-2009 committed a total of 19 kidnappings. We managed to collect suitable evidence that could be accepted by the court for 13 of these kidnappings. But the handwriting and the way the others were carried out - we have no doubts that this was the group that carried out these kidnappings“, commented Tsvetan Tsvetanov in “This Morning“.
“This situation is very difficult, especially now to comment so many years later, because it shows that the state is once again returning to some periods that we think have already been forgotten. When I became Minister of Internal Affairs, there were three main priorities against serious organized crime. These were the kidnappings - because I was 18 by the time I was supposed to take over the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The kidnapping of Guninski - was the 19th kidnapping and this was a 20-year-old boy“, Tsvetanov said.
“Imagine what the parents, relatives were going through. The system had to do everything possible to work adequately, because it was obvious that nothing had been done for two years before that. The system was broken. The information was coming through some information channels, but it was not analyzed and adequate actions were not taken to neutralize this group“, the former interior minister recalls.
“Thanks to one of the participants on the periphery of this group - he contacted me to provide information. I was very cautious, because it is not the place for a minister of interior to hold such an operational meeting, but the person had categorically stated that he would only share it with me and no one else, because he did not trust“, he also said.