Taki and brother of Vice-President of Parliament investigated for terrorism

The famous drug lord Christoforos Nikos Amanatidis – Taki and Rositsa Kirova’s brother Konstantin Lyubenov Varbanov are being investigated abroad in a case of money laundering and terrorist financing, BIRD.BG learned in the framework of a large cross-border investigation of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ.

Colleagues from ICIJ have read the court documents in which the names of the two Bulgarians are present.

Copies of their passports in PDF format were found in the seized computer of the main suspect.

Taki and the brother of Rositsa Kirova, who was a two-term Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly nominated by GERB and is now a member of the party of Boyko Borisov, have traveled together to the country where the investigation is being conducted, the documents in the case say.

Searches at the suspects’ home found a large number of heavy automatic weapons and 40,000 rounds of ammunition.

BIRD was able to identify the serial number of one of the weapons, which is manufactured in Bulgaria, at the Arsenal plant.

Rositsa Kirova and her brother have a common business in the company Danube Dredging Fleet – Vidin.

Kirova was also a partner with Kosovo drug lord Ismet Osmani, an investigation by BIRD.BG revealed. Despite this scandalous fact, she was ostentatiously proposed as Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly by GERB.

After the release of these data, the Ministry of Interior answered a parliamentary question that there is no evidence of criminal activity in Bulgaria of Ismet Osmani, against whom a criminal case is ongoing in Kosovo.

Christoforos Nikos Amanatidis – Taki was investigated and wanted through Interpol by the Bulgarian authorities for leading an armed criminal group for drug distribution and robbery, but went into hiding in Dubai.

In 2012, the UAE refused to extradite him. Subsequently, the case against Taki was dropped due to lack of evidence, and the search bulletin for Taki disappeared from the website of the international police organization.

So far, it is unclear whether the Bulgarian authorities are aware of the investigation abroad, in which Taki and the brother of the former deputy head of parliament Rositsa Kirova are taking place.

We recall that persons related to Taki, including his lawyer, were also identified in the investigation into Kapitan Andreevo’s “Golden Laboratory“. It became clear that through this point and this laboratory in Europe were entered food that was not checked for harmful substances.

The evidence of a terrorism investigation involving a Bulgarian drug kingpin, a relative of a senior politician and Bulgarian weapons is particularly worrying against the backdrop of EU countries’ concerns about Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen.

BIRD continues work on the case, together with colleagues from the International Consortium.

The brother of the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Rositsa Kirova has filed a lawsuit against Atanas Chobanov and Dimitar Nikolov with a material claim of BGN 26,000. for our article “Taki and the brother of the Deputy Speaker of Parliament are investigated for terrorism“. The civil case number 606/2023 was initiated before the Sofia City Court, and the judge is Ekaterina Stoeva.

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