25 held as Bulgaria cracks down on kidnap gangs

Published on Thursday 17 December 2009 21:46

BULGARIA struck a rare blow against organised crime yesterday, when police made a wave of arrests of suspected kidnappers whose abductions of the rich and famous have blackened its image.

A total of 25 people were held in capital Sofia and other cities on suspicion of organising some of the 16 kidnappings of the past two years. Among those abducted were a football club president and a former top customs officer.

"This is a strike back by the state against impudent criminal types who have tormented society in the past two years," interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said.

Bulgaria has not convicted anyone of kidnapping nor any senior official of corruption and has sent only one crime boss to jail since communism collapsed in 1989.

Its centre-right government is under pressure at home and from the European Union to deliver on its pledge to tame powerful organised crime and punish corrupt senior officials.

Most of those kidnapped were released, but one businessman was found dead 18 months later and some are still missing.