The Bulgarian underground is widely celebrated, this time relevant for a seemingly simple business – the parking lots. The unusual mandatory parking lots are found at Bulgarian land border crossings, and the problems have reached such a point that the European Parliament has threatened Bulgaria with exclusion from Schengen. The profitable parking lots are managed by the Bulgarian underground, and among them are associates of the famous crypto queen Ruzha Ignatova – the most wanted woman on the planet for the historically spectacular OneCoin scams.
IRL and BIRD partners in Bulgaria reveal that the owner of one of these parking lots recently became a Macedonian citizen from Probishtip and the current driver of the director of the Bulgarian mining company Minstroy, which manages the Zletovo mine in the country.
For a truck to cross from Bulgaria to one of its neighboring countries, at the border crossing it is met by a traffic light, which cannot be avoided because it always lights up red on the right and drivers are forced to enter the parking lots, where the entrance is 25 euros for foreigners and 8 euros for Bulgarian drivers.
The drivers of heavy goods vehicles are actually forced to turn right and enter the so-called “golden parking lot”, because there is also a ban on staying on the roadway. This "fictional" business is run by private owners, which is not controlled by the state, but can even be supported by the fact that the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior allows the operation of traffic lights directing drivers to the parking lots.
Border points in Bulgaria remain a favorable field for this business, as the country only partially became part of the Schengen area for air and sea travel, while land borders remain outside the area.
"Golden parking lots" part of the drug trafficking network
The Bulgarian authorities turned a blind eye to the problem for a long time, but finally the scandal acquired international dimensions. Turkey and Greece have announced that they are looking for a new transport corridor to bypass Bulgaria, because of the chaos at the borders. But the government has already started an investigation, sending checks from the National Tax Agency and the National Revenue Agency.
Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ivan Hristanov further fueled doubts about the operation of these parking lots, stating that this business, as well as the so-called "golden pool" for car disinfection and "golden laboratory" for the control of imported fruits and vegetables, which are also located at the border points, are key in the drug trafficking network.
After a long legal saga, the state was able to partially restore the disinfection business and the laboratory. The buffer parking problem remains unsolved, which has even increased with the new installations at the border crossings, where drivers are forced to wait and thus generate impressive revenue.
Besides the Bulgarian-Romanian border, there are such paid buffer parking lots at other border points in Bulgaria, south of the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing and Danube Bridge 1 near Ruse, and they are managed by related companies.
The driver who became a partner of "Multigroup"
The owner of one such, considered a "golden business" parking lot at the Vidin border crossing between Bulgaria and Romania, became a Macedonian citizen last year.
This parking lot has a capacity of 600 places, which means that it brings in revenues of 10-12 thousand euros per day. At the same time, restaurants, casinos, toilets, etc. operate in the parking lots.
When BIRD colleagues from Bulgaria contacted us to ask who was businessman Gorancho Tsvetkovski from Macedonia, whose business was being investigated by the Bulgarian authorities, the IRL search began, leading us to the top of "Minstroy Holding", one of the leading mining companies in Bulgaria, which also operates in the country.
It was not easy to discover the identity of Cvetkovski, as his name is anonymous in business circles. The document from the Bulgarian central register, in which his personal data is indicated, helped to identify Gorancho Cvetkovski. According to these documents, but also according to additional checks in other state agencies made by IRL, he lives in Probishtip and is employed as a driver by the director of the company “Bulmak 2016”, which manages the Zletovo and Toranitsa mines. Owner of "Bulmak 2016" is the Bulgarian company "Minstroy" from Bulgaria to the businessman Nikolay Vulkanov.
In July 2016, just three months after the Bulgarians took the concessions for the Macedonian mines, Tsvetkovski became a miner. Then from October he became a security guard, while in 2019 he became a car driver in the company, i.e. personal driver of the director of "Bulmak 2016" Ilia Goranov Iliev.
Tsvetkovski created his Bulgarian company "Danubia Logistics Vidin" in January 2023, with a capital of 250 thousand euros. Three months later, he took over the parking lot at the Vidin border crossing to Romania. Previous owners of the parking lot are people related to Razmig Chakaryan - a confidant of Christophoros Amanatidis - Taki or, as the BBC calls him - the Bulgarian Pablo Escobar.
We tried to contact Tsvetkovski, but only spoke to his daughter, who told us he was out of the country. Until the publication of the text, Tsvetkovski has not contacted journalists from IRL.
IRL sent questions to "Bulmak 2016" which were answered promptly. In the letter from this company, it says that they were not aware of the activities that Tsvetkovski performed outside of his working hours and distanced himself from his actions. At the same time from "Bulmak 2016" they answered that Tsvetkovski was fired from the company that same day, but for other reasons.
„The employee Gorancho Tsvetkovski committed a gross violation of the provisions of the employment contract he concluded with his employer Bulmak 2016 DOOEL Probistip and the Labor Relations Act. For this reason, on 06.09.2024, the employment contract of this person with “Bulmak” DOOEL Probishtip has been terminated without notice.
Gorancho Tsvetkovski's resignation comes a day after DANS launched an investigation into the business of "golden parking lots", which are suspected of being a front for Bulgarian organized crime.
Who is Nikolai Vulkanov from "Multigroup" - the favorite of many Macedonian politicians
Nikolay Vulkanov is regularly present in Macedonia. He was here just a few days ago, at the Miner's Day celebration on August 28 in the company of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski. Before that, the two visited the "Bulmak-Zletovo" mine together. in April, at the height of the election campaign.
Valkanov had similar meetings with Zoran Zaev while he was prime minister, and he always publicly praised the cooperation with the Macedonian authorities. Moreover, at the beginning of the mandate of the previous government, the "Ministry of Construction" entered into business cooperation with people close to Zaev.
In June 2018, the company "Bull-building" was established in Strumica. The owners are "Minstroy Holding AG" and Alexander Piperevaliev, who is a first cousin of Dragi Rashkovski, a close friend of Zaev and a former general secretary convicted of software fraud.
The company has a permit for the production and sale of cannabis, and the manager of the company is Gotse Moysoski, who is in the same position in "Bulmak 2016".
In a certain period, the controversial Serbian businessman Predrag Koluvia and Goran Krastev, also a close associate of Zaevi, were partners in this company.
The owner of "Minstroy" Nikolay Vulkanov has never acknowledged his past and his relationship with the well-known company "Multigroup". He was vice president of "Multigroup" and one of the closest associates of the owner Ilia Pavlov, qualified in American diplomatic reports as "the doyenne of Bulgarian organized crime". Pavlov became the victim of an assassination in 2003. The Vice President of Multigroup Nikolai Vulkanov survived, acquired academic degrees, his business grew, and his political connections and influence placed him in the category of regional oligarchs.
The Bulgarian corporation "Multigroup" was accused of participating in the assassination of the former Macedonian president Kiro Gligorov. The then head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Lyubomir Fruchkoski publicly accused this Bulgarian company of being connected to the murder of Gligorov. A year later, Gligorov received Iliya Pavlov in the summer residence "Bilyana". on Lake Ohrid. At the meeting, Pavlov assured Gligorov that he had nothing to do with the attempt on him. "Multigroup" was also the owner of shares in "Balkanska banka-Skopje".
Relations with the Bulgarian mafia
The land on which the parking lot near Vidin was built, before Gorancho Tsvetkovski's company bought it, was owned by the company "Interbays".
During the initial purchase of the land by Interbuys, the company's proxy was Borislav Karev. He has a joint business with Svetlana Kamenova, ex-wife of Krasimir Kamenov – Kuro, a close associate of the notorious Bulgarian drug lord Taki. Curro was executed last year in South Africa.
Christophoros Amanatidis – That's how he gained worldwide fame as the partner of crypto queen Ruzha Ignatova, who is also wanted by the FBI. An investigation by the BBC and BIRD revealed numerous business links between the two, and a police report published by BIRD alleged that Taki ordered the murder of Ruzha Ignatova in 2018 on a yacht in the Ionian Sea.
In our country, Taki is considered an extremely influential crime boss. He was previously wanted by Interpol for drug trafficking and was hiding in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Ramig Chakaryan – Ami is Taki's closest associate in Bulgaria and is the former owner of the companies that work at the border crossings. After his name became known, Chakaryan transferred control of the companies to other persons.
All these proven connections between gangsters, senior politicians and legitimate business clearly illustrate the phrase that "in many countries there is a mafia, and in Bulgaria the mafia has its own country".
Source: irl.mk