The Sofia City Court sentenced notorious Bulgarian drug lord Evelin Banev aka Brendo to 7.5 years in prison on Friday.

Prosecutors had demanded a 12 year-sentence for Brendo, who was charged with heading an organized crime gang and money laundering.

His accomplices, Monika Dobrinova, Desislava Dishlieva and Simo Karaychev, received a 3-year suspended sentence with a five-year probation period.

Banev and the others are charged with launding over EUR 2 M using a personal account belonging to Konstantin Dishliev, owner of a firm called Private Finance Union, who was killed in 2005.

Dobrinova is Brendo's ex wife, while Dishlieva is Dishliev's widow. The prosecution believes they were part of an international drug money laundering ring.

Brendo has been in custody on charges of leading organized crime groups, and laundering money from drug trafficking and drug dealing; he is known as Bulgaria's "cocaine king".

Evelin Banev was recently extradited to Italy on organized crime and cocaine trafficking charges under a European Arrest Warrant, and the Italian authorities committed to flying him back to Bulgaria every time there is a court hearing.

A prosecutor from major Bulgarian city of Burgas has been detained, according to media reports Friday.

The arrest of prosecutor Angel Georgiev was carried out by plain clothes police in a central Burgas cafe late Thursday evening.

At present, there is no official information on what charges Georgiev has been detained, but some sources are reporting implications with bribe.

The detainee was not given access to a lawyer at the time of the arrest.

His wife told the Bulgarian National Radio that police refused to inform her on what charges Gerogiev has been arrested.

Angel Georgiev is a prosecutor on a number of trials for bank fraud and murder, and is observing an abduction case, writes Mediapool.bg.

A bail of BGN 50 000 (some EUR 25 500) has been determined by Bulgaria's special anti-mafia court for the release of Stayko Staykov who is believed to be in charge of a large-scale sugar trade VAT draining ring.

During Friday's court sitting, Staykov was officially charged as the leader of a VAT fraud group specializing in sugar trade.

The charges against him were brought in absentia on December 12, 2012, when the police arrested Simeon Tanev, Dobrin Dobrev, and Veselin Ranchev as his accomplices in a special operation of Bulgaria's anti-mafia unit GDBOP.

The special operation codenamed "Lollipop" was led by Bulgaria's Specialized Prosecutor's Office; during the operation, the police found that Staykov was abroad.

On February 5, 2013, Staykov turned himself in at the Specialized Prosecutor's Office.

According to the investigators, Staykov's sugar trade VAT draining scheme had been operating since February 2012, and incurred losses to the Bulgarian state budget totaling BGN 2.5 M.

It used commercial firms under it control to import refined sugar from Greece, to carry out fake deals with phantom firms in order to evade VAT payments, and to sell the sugar in Bulgaria's domestic market at reduced prices.

The Varna Appellate Court has allowed the deportation of Galin Filev, an alleged Bulgarian fraudster wanted in the USA.

On Friday, the Varna Appellate Court confirmed a ruling of the Dobrich District Court for the extradition of Filev, 43, a native of the Black Sea town of Kavarna, to the United States so that he can face trial on fraud and molestation charges.

The prosecution in the US state of Illinois has requested that the Bulgarian authorities turn Filev over to them so that he can be tried on six counts of bank fraud and molesting an underage person, the press service of the Varna Appellate Court reported.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has issued two arrest warrants for Galin Filev dated April 2006 and January 2011.

However, Filev could be detained by the Bulgarian police only in November 2012 based on a newly signed extradition treaty between Bulgaria and the USA; he was placed in custody for 60 days.

US banks are reported to have granted Filev four mortgage loans for two properties in the Chicago area that were never inhabited by the Bulgarian.

Filev also got two other bank loans for the development of a small enterprise but according to the investigators he filed fake data about the annual revenues of his alleged firm.

Thus, the Bulgarian man is estimated to have incurred losses worth USD 950 000 to the banks in question, which could get him up to 30 years in jail under State of Illinois law.

In addition to bank fraud, the US authorities are investigating Filev for a kidnapping and molestation of an underage person in September 2005.

The ruling of the Varna Appellate Court on Galin Filev's extradition to the USA is final and cannot be appealed.

A Dutch man has been detained by Bulgarian Customs officers at the Bulgarian-Serbian border crossing Kalotina trying to smuggle two gold bars.

Another Dutch man accompanying the first one was caught with a total of EUR 21 000 in his pockets, the press service of the Bulgarian Customs Agency reported.

The two Netherlands nationals were traveling to Turkey via Bulgaria; their car was searched after the customs agents found to be unnecessarily nervous.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has rejected claims that the implication of the Shiite group in the Burgas bus bombing in July 2012 would trigger an Israeli attack on Lebanon.

In a televised speech commemorating Hezbollah's "martyr leaders", Nasrallah suggested that Lebanese opposition politicians were exploiting the results of the Bulgarian probe indicating links of two of the three perpetrators of the attack at the Sarafovo airport with Hezbollah's military wing.

The deadly attack in Burgas killed a total of seven, including five Israeli tourists, the Bulgarian bus driver, and the alleged suicide bomber.

Nasrallah, as cited by Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star, reminded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had blamed Hezbollah for the bus bombing a few hours after the incident, adding that no Israeli attack had followed.

"The ones predicting an Israeli war on Lebanon are unfortunately Lebanese and some Arab figures, which is based on the alleged accusations against Hezbollah," Nasrallah was quoted as saying by Now Lebanon.

"They seek to put Lebanon on a terrorist blacklist," Nasrallah added.

"Israel does not need to wait for the results of a probe to wage a war on Lebanon," he stated, stressing that the investigation of the bombing in the Black Sea city of Burgas was being followed calmly and carefully.

Nasrallah warned Israel against launching an assault on Lebanon, adding that Hezbollah remained prepared to fight even without the support of Syria or Iran.

The prosecuting authority in Nicosia has withdrawn charges against Bulgarian pilot Yanko Stoimenov in connection with a plane crash of Cypriot airline Helios.

On August 14, 2005, a Boeing 737-300 flying from Larnaka to Prague via Athens crashed north of the Greek capital, killing all of the 121 passengers and crew members onboard.

The crash was the worst accident on record for Greece and Cyprus.

The Court of first instance in Athens declared Helios' managing director Demetris Pantazis, flight operations manager Giorgos Kikkides, chief pilot Yanko Stoimenov and chief engineer Alan Irwin guilty of negligent manslaughter.

At the time of the accident, Stoimenov was chief pilot of Cypriot airline Helios but was not onboard the plane, according to reports of PRIVATE Bulgarian TV station bTV.

On February 9, the Supreme Court of Cyprus revoked the Stoimenov's acquittal from December 2011 and returned the case for retrial to the court of first instance.

The retrial was conducted by a new judge panel.

On February 7, an appellate court in Athens reduced the sentence of Stoimenov from 123 to 122 years of imprisonment, placing a bail bond of EUR 77 000.

The Director of Bulgaria's National Intelligence Services, NIS, Dragomir Draganov, denied he has information ethnic Turkish leader, Ahmed Dogan, had plotted an attack on the life of outgoing Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov.

On Thursday, speaking from the parliamentary rostrum just minutes after parliament accepted with overwhelming majority the resignation of the government of his Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, Borisov shockingly stated the leader of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, Ahmed Dogan, wanted him dead, citing a document from the intelligence of a foreign country.

He said he learned about a plotted assassination attempt on his life just two weeks ago, and cited information coming precisely from Dimitrov. The attempt on the outgoing PM's life, dating from the summer of 2009, just ahead of the previous general election, stemmed from him inflicting on the interests of a powerful, international organized crime group.

However, Dimitrov reports he had not received any such tipoffs since January 26, 2012, and was going to check on any earlier ones, but stressed he would not comment on classified information either way.

He is heading the intelligence agency since January 2012.

Right-wing Member of the Parliament and former NIS Head, Dimo Gyaurov, also said there was no data Dogan had participated in plotting an attack on Borisov's life, adding if there was, it would be classified and Borisov should not have known about it.

However, another NIS Chief, Gen Kircho Kirov, stated there has been such life threat and it had been a serious one. Kirov stressed he was unpleasantly surprised that classified information could be thrown out so recklessly in public space to the detriment of the security of the State. He confirmed Dogan's name had been mentioned in the tipoff, which has come from partner services of a neighboring Balkan country, but not in the context used by Borisov.

Meanwhile, Metodi Andreev, ex Head of the Files Commission, the panel investigating the secret files of the former Communist State Security, DS, broke the news before bTV that there had been a secret meeting last week between Dogan and the leader of the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, Sergey Stanishev, where the ethnic Turkish leader asked to take over the energy sector in case they are to form the next coalition cabinet.

Andreev confirmed there had been a tipoff from a partner service about a threat on Borisov's life, mentioning Dogan's name. He reminded the latter has been a long-term DS agent, trained by it, stressing DPS is a corrupt party, detrimental to ethnic Turks in the country.

On Wednesday, Borisov made the stunning announcement he was resigning, grounding the decision on not wanting to see blood on streets and fences around the building of the Parliament. He said he was returning the power to the people who elected him in the summer of 2009.

The breaking news about Borisov's resignation came in the aftermath of large-scale protests across the country against high utility bills, leading to clashes with riot police with many injuries and vandalism.

The serious threats on the life of outgoing Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, amount to nearly a dozen.

The news was reported Friday by the Bulgarian Trud (Labor) daily in the aftermath of Borisov stating the honorary chairman of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, Ahmed Dogan, had masterminded a plot to kill him.

The Trud editors have made the effort to assemble similar reports over the last years.

On Thursday, speaking from the parliamentary rostrum just minutes after parliament accepted with overwhelming majority the resignation of the government of his Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, Borisov shockingly declared Dogan wanted him dead, citing a document from the intelligence of a foreign country.

He said he learned about a plotted assassination attempt on his life just two weeks ago. The attempt on the outgoing PM's life, dating from the summer of 2009, just ahead of the previous general election, stemmed from him inflicting on the interests of a powerful, international organized crime group.

According to Trud, three of the tipoffs regarding Borisov's life being in danger came from neighboring Serbia.

The first two date from 2003 and 2004 and were tied to Serbian drug lord Sreten Jocic AKA Joca Amsterdam. At the time, he was hunted by Interpol; was apprehended in Bulgaria in 2002, and extradited to the Netherlands. The threats involved both Borisov and the Dutch prosecutor who requested the extradition.

In 2002, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry launched a covert operation against Jocic, codenamed "Lale" (Tulip), which also entangled notorious Bulgarian mobster Milcho Bonev AKA Bay Mile, close to one of the two top organized crime groups in the 90s of the 20th century – SIK.

Bay Mile was killed along with 5 other people in an execution style murder in 2004 after surviving a bomb attack in 2001.

According to reports, circulating for years now, in a recording, made by Bulgarian anti-mafia police with secret surveillance devices, SRS, Bay Mile is heart saying to Jocic: "Boyko took the money and the Varna man did not get anything."

The taped conversation happened just a day before Jocic's extradition to the Netherlands.

It still remains unclear who were Boyko and the Varna man, and what money has been involved.

The third Serbian threat against Borisov dates from June 2005, when the Serbian services for combatting organized crime have reported that the Serbian mafia is masterminding an attack on the Bulgarian Chief Secretary of the Interior, which was Borisov's post at the time.

There have been two serious threats against the outgoing PM, coming from Bulgarian organized crime.

The first one dates from 2001, when Bulgarian mobsters Konstantin Dimitrov AKA Kosio Samokovetsa (from Samokov) and Meto Ilienski, both from the VIS group, and Stoil Stoilov from the rivaling SIK have been intercepted by Greek mafia planning Borisov's murder in the Hyatt hotel in Thessaloniki. The Greek then informed Bulgarian services.

Dimitrov was killed in 2006, while Ilienski vanished in 2003.

Another similar meeting has taken place in February 2002, when the same people and several other mobsters have met in a vacation home in the Vitosha mountain near Sofia to plot the murder of Borisov over a busted illegal drugs channel.

The National Security Services, NSO, also list as serious a bomb threat against Borisov and his Deputy, Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, issued just days after GERB won the general election in the summer of 2009.

According to Borisov, along with the above, he had received scores even "thousands" such threats.

Meanwhile, a number of Bulgarian intelligence chiefs gave contradicting reports on the alleged tipoff Dogan was involved in a plot to kill the outgoing PM.

On Wednesday, Borisov made the stunning announcement he was resigning, grounding the decision on not wanting to see blood on streets and fences around the building of the Parliament. He said he was returning the power to the people who elected him in the summer of 2009.

The breaking news about Borisov's resignation came in the aftermath of large-scale protests across the country against high utility bills, leading to clashes with riot police with many injuries and vandalism.

Thirty people have been detained in the Bulgarian capital Sofia after the official conclusion of the mass protest rally held Sunday.

Thousands took on the streets in Sofia and across Bulgaria, protesting against the political model, unbearable utility bills and wide-spread poverty.

The detainees have disrupted public order in calling on other demonstrators to block the key intersection of "Patriarch Evtimiy" boulevard and "Graf Ignatiev" street in downtown Sofia.

They have also shouted obscenities and have made explicit signs to riot police. Some were found to have been carrying knuckles, knifes and homemade explosives.

Six have been taken to the 4th police precinct; 24 are in the 1st one.

Bulgarian capital Sofia's Palace of Justice, home of various judicial institutions and organizations, was closed early on Tuesday after an anonymous bomb alert.

The call claiming that a bomb has been deployed in the building was received by authorities at 9:15  am local time, BGNES informs.

Police authorities are currently conducting a search of the building.

The Palace of Justice in Sofia has been the target of anonymous bomb threats on a number of occasions over the last several months. No traces of explosives have been found in any of these cases.

The office building of Austrian-owned power utility EVN in Bulgaria's Plovdiv was set on fire Monday night, the local police reported. Tuesday.

Unknown persons are believed to have started a fire on the facade walls of the EVN building.

The police in the 2nd police precinct got a report late Monday night that somebody poured an inflammable liquid on part of the facade and a neon billboard of the EVN offices on the 6 September Blvd in Plovdiv, and the set them ablaze.

During the police inspection, the officers found a burned bottle and a hand-made poste.

Meanwhile, the police in the 5th precinct in Plovdiv got a report that three of the tyres of a EVN car were cut on the Unification Street in the city.

EVN, which is the supplier of electricity in Southern and Southeastern Bulgaria, has been targetted by Bulgarian protesters across the country together with its Western and Northeastern counterparts from CEZ and Energo-Pro over high electricity bills and other monopoly excesses in a wave of protests, which brought down the Bulgarian government of Boyko Borisov last week.

The police in Bulgaria's capital Sofia have detained 15 youth, including 6 underage teens, on hooliganism charges during Monday night's protests against monopoly power utilities and the already resigned Borisov Cabinet.

Some of the youngsters were found to have been carrying masks and prohibited items, and most, inlcuding four of the underage ones, were found to have had criminal records, the police said.

All of those who were underage were turned over to their parents. The prohibitted items the police seized included bottle openers, penknives, a gas pistol.

Customs officers from Bulgaria's Kapital Andreevo border crossing point have caught two Romanian women smuggling gold in their underwear.

The two women from the Romanian town of Satu Mare were travelling on a bus from Istanbul to Bucharest when they were randomly selected for searching.

One of the women had 500 grams of gold decorations in her underwear, and the other one – 400 grams, adding up to almost a kilogram.

The two Romanian women were found to be smuggling a total of 73 pairs of earrings, 61 necklaces, 46 rings, 31 bracelets, and 14 medallions.

The almost kilogram of 14-carrat gold was found to be worth BGN 56 833, the Customs Agency announced.

Police have detained a young man carrying a pistol and a knife in front of the President's Office in downtown Sofia.

Tihomir Dobrev, 29, was arrested Tuesday in front of the President's Office with a gas pistol Ekol Major, a Swiss Army knife, and a 700ml bottle of vodka.

According to reports of the BGNES news agency, the man was visibly drunk.

He is reported to have headed for the entrance of the President's Office during an ongoing session of the Consultative Council on National Security, taking out the gas pistol a few meters in front of the guards.

While he was being arrested, Dobrev reportedly hurled accusations at President Rosen Plevneliev.

Dobrev is cited by Sega daily as saying that he intended to threaten the President.

After speaking to journalists, the man was taken away by police officers.

The Plovdiv Appellate Court has upheld the sentences of Spas Hristov and Georgi Yordanov, ethnic Roma who ran over ethnic Bulgarians during tensions in the village of Katunitsa in September 2011.

Hristov and Yordanov were found guilty by the Plovdiv District Court of running over Petar Georgiev, Valentin Kostov, and Atanas Vasev, causing them wounds, on September 23, 2011, after Roma related to the clan of Roma baron Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro, ran over and killed 19-year-old ethnic Bulgarian Angel Petrov.

Spas Hristov has been sentenced to 7 years in jail and a revocation of his driver's license for a period of 10 years. Georgi Yordanov has been sentenced to 6 years in jail, and a revocation of his driver's license for a period of 9 years.

Hristov and Yordanov are sentenced to pay Petar Georgiev a total of BGN 10 000, and Hristov is sentenced to pay Atanas Vasev BGN 5 000.

The ruling of the Plovdiv Appellate Court can be appealed before Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation within 15 days.

Two Bulgarian nationals have been sentenced to an 18-month jail term, suspended for three years, for stealing fuel.

Stefan Mitkov Parasakov, 27, and Mihail Nedkov Nikolov 28, both from Sliema, who discovered a way to retrieve the money they put into automated fuel pumps and helped themselves to free diesel.

The two were given suspended jail terms after admitting to stealing EUR 960 worth of diesel from pumps across the island over the course of a month, according to the Times of Malta.

Paraskov and Nikolov received suspended sentences, since they had paid the money back.

Bulgarian national Deyan Deyanov, who committed the shocking murder of 60-year-old Jennifer Mills-Westley in Tenerife back in 2011, has been sentenced to 20 years in a psychiatric unit.

Deyanov's defence had argued that he was not criminally responsible for his actions due to paranoid schizophrenia, but he was found guilty by a jury of nine last week.

When asked by the magistrate if he had anything he wanted to say, Deyanov answered through his interpreter: "I am the second reincarnation of Jesus Christ and I will bring the fire of the Holy Spirit to bear against this court," according to Sky News.

Deyanov killed 60-year-old Jennifer Mills-Westley in a shop in the popular resort of Los Cristianos back in May 2011. He stabbed her 14 times before decapitating her in public.

The mentally ill man had pursued the victim for some time before the horrifying act.

The Sofia City Court is holding Friday the first session in the renewed trial for the murder of Stoyan Baltov in Sofia's now-infamous Studentski Grad (College Town) district.

20-year-old pharmacy student Stoyan Baltov died on December 5, 2008, after sustaining severe head trauma and skull fracture from a beating in front of the "Amnesia" disco club in the district.

Three other young men, Alexander Danailov, Vili Georgiev, and Svetlozar Stoilov, are the defendants in the case. They are charged with premeditated murder executed in a particularly cruel way and with hooliganism motives.

Baltov's parents are the private accusers in the case.

The magistrates agreed to simultaneously examine two civil claims against the defendants in the amount of nearly BGN 0.5 M.

The first Court session in the case took place on July 3, 2010, when the parties requested from the judges to return it to the Prosecutor's Office.

Two weeks later, the Sofia City Court ruled to dismiss the case and to return it to the prosecution for additional collecting of evidence and investigation.

Sofia's College Town is infamous for and frequently makes the news over binge drinking, fights, fatal incidents and prostitution rings.

24-year-old Boris Kiryakov passed away in June 2012, after being severely beaten in front of a night club. Kiryakov was transferred to Sofia's Pirogov hospital in critical condition and could not recover. He died on July 5th.

At the end of February 2012, Mario Danchev, 19, a student from the Economy University in Sofia, was stabbed and killed in the dormitory where he lived.

A teenager of Roma origin who was trying to steal scrap metal has een shot dead in the Bulgarian capital Sofia by a security guard.

The 16-year-old Kamen Asenov and a friend of his broke into the Poduyane refrigerator depot on Saturday in order to steal scrap.

However, they were detected and shot at by the security guards of the depot; Asenov passed away as a result of his gunshot wounds while his friend is wounded in the leg.

Hearing the news about the shot boy, Roma from a nearby Roma ghetto attempted to storm the depot in order to lynch the security guards, and were stopped only by the immediate arrival of several police patrols.

Rampant scrap theft is a major means of making a living for a large number of Roma across Bulgaria and the authorities have been absolutely unsuccessful in tackling either this sort of crime itself, or its social causes.