Aug
18
Burgas. “My brother did not know what the ship was transporting,” Liliya Staneva, sister of one of the sailors of the Sv Nikolay Ship, which was detained with around 3 tons of cocaine – Yuliyan Petrov, said for Radio FOCUS – Burgas.
“The last good conversation we had was on July 27, when he told me that the ship is somewhere around Africa and its [ship’s] name is no longer Burgas 3 but Sveti Nikolay. I asked him why the name was changed and he said the crew was told that due to the difficult financial situation of the company the owner of the ship had to change its name so as to let it return to Bulgaria without any problems and I expected him here in the end of August. I do not know what the shipment of the ship was before. My brother got on board in May. Back then the ship was empty and he told me that probably it would be loaded with sugar but the sugar was never loaded,” Liliya Staneva said.
“The next call was on August 4 and my brother told me that they could return to Bulgaria. He said he did not have much money and hung up.”
“I know he is in Spain, I have the information released by the media, since the investigation is underway and I guess no information will be provided to the relatives,” Staneva added.
FOCUS News Agency recalls:
A crime group, which managed to establish a ring for trafficking drugs from South America to Europe, has been neutralised in a joint operation.
The operation is codenamed Cartel and was realised with the participation of the anti-drugs unit with the Bulgarian General Directorate for Fight against Organised Crime (GDBOP) and the police services of France, DEA-USA and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) – UK.
After serious information exchange through Interpol and the cooperation with the law-enforcement services of Spain on August 13, 2012 the Sv Nikolay Ship, sailing under Bulgarian flag, was detained. During a search on the board of the ship authorities found and confiscated around 3 tons of cocaine, while the captain and the crew – a total of 21 Bulgarian citizens, were arrested.
Three other Bulgarian citizens were arrested on the territory of Bulgaria in the frames of the following actions.
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