They are usually Bulgarian workers, they also started bringing in Ukrainians and Moldovans. They usually live there for between 4-8 weeks, it turns into a reality show, the conflicts are very severe. This was said by Tihomir Bezlov from the Center for the Study of Democracy in the program “Face to Face“ after the central program News on bTV.
“During this time, the cigarettes are taken out, the workers stay there. The long periods are risky and the shifts are considered risky. This is not just a Bulgarian model, it works like this throughout the EU. We are quite influential in the market of illegal factories“, he also pointed out.
According to him, this is not the largest factory, but the largest amount of seized cigarettes in our country - 100 million pieces. The factory is very expensive - the way it is made underground. Many sensors, cameras, everything is very well thought out.
“This is an example of an expensive factory with a lot of expenses. It is believed to be connected to another Plovdiv-Pazardzhik group, that of Petleshkov. The cigarettes seized in November 2024 in two Plovdiv villages are the same. There was a hypothesis that the factory might have been in Greece at the time“, Bezlov also commented.
According to him, it is possible that the truck seized at General Toshevo was monitored, it is possible that it was captured on cameras.
According to him, there were no people inside and there was no production at that moment, because one option is that they could not place the cigarettes, the other is that they were warned.
“Usually the lowest levels are retained. The valuable people are the technologists – those who set up the machines and those who manage the network. Now there are 2% of illegal cigarettes in our country, in the past it was nearly half the market. What is happening is that the distribution and the low channels are being destroyed“, Bezlov also said.
“It is difficult to reach the owner because he works through intermediaries, they are ready to spend several years in prison to receive their compensation. Everywhere the highest levels are the most difficult to reach. These people are usually connected to large economic groups. Even if there is no national political umbrella, there should be at least a local one“, Tihomir Bezlov also pointed out.