The outgoing reformist government says the EU's single market border with Turkey was run by mobsters under previous administrations.

Bulgaria's outgoing government is using its last breath to sound the alarm about how mobsters have seized control of a key border crossing to the EU — undermining food safety and supposed common standards in the bloc's internal market, Lily Bayer writes in an op-ed for Politico . 

For many years, the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing on Bulgaria's border with Turkey has been known as an entry point for drugs into the European Union and as a place where importers can be extorted.

Now the anti-corruption crusaders who lead the short-lived reformist government are shedding light on how, under previous political administrations, a criminal group allowed vast amounts of food into the EU without proper checks.

Ivan Hristanov to Novini.bg about the case of the "Captain Andreevo" checkpoint: We prevented the draining of millions in the next 10 years

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, who came to office just seven months ago on an anti-corruption platform, resigned last week after losing a vote of no confidence.

But his allies, who are still in office until a new government takes over, are escalating a highly public campaign targeting an organized crime group on the border.

Cabinet "Petkov" fell!

The vote of no confidence passed

The crackdown on Bulgaria's notorious mafia-related border corruption - which has long kept Bulgaria out of the Schengen area with passport-free travel - comes as Petkov's party prepares for possible parliamentary elections in the fall.

By taking on the Kremlin — Sofia expelled 70 Russian diplomats and spies last week — and organized crime, Petkov is trying to draw a clear line between his own and previous administrations tarnished by ties to both.

Asen Vasilev: There's no way Russia is going to spit on us, and we act like it's raining

Dealing with Bulgaria's powerful mafia interests is not for the faint of heart.

Ivan Hristanov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture (br. from the quota of "We continue the change"), who leads the work on Kapitan Andreevo, now has to live under guard because he receives threats - similar to other government officials and their close ones.

When Hristanov first requested a file at the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing in January, he received a warning from the mafia the very next day.

"This message came from the mobsters," he said in an interview with Politico.

"It was in the form of a question: 'Shall we go to war with you?'

Or shall we have peace?'

Europe's 'private border'

The Bulgarian government's investigation focuses on an organized crime group.

It uses its position as a de facto monopoly with control over one of Europe's busiest border crossings to generate illegal revenue and allow food into the EU that would normally be rejected or destroyed for legal reasons.

Retired Finance Minister Asen Vassilev published analyses, according to which the financial damage from corruption at the border crossing amounts to 2,500 euros per hour - or nearly 22 million euros per year.

Vasilev told Bulgarian television that there had been a "private border" at Captain Andreevo for a decade.

Deputy Minister: They tried to corrupt me, they offered me millions

The criminal group, officials said, had a monopoly on the border checkpoint, taking bribes and extorting companies — without interference from authorities.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Hristanov said: "There is evidence that "foods that were not subjected to the necessary controls - and very, very likely had elevated levels of pesticides - entered the European Union and reached the European table for consumption".

"We treat this matter extremely seriously, Hristanov also said.

"It's not just about European citizens, it's also about our children."

The Bulgarian government placed the border crossing under its control and requested assistance from foreign governments and organizations.

"For the past 10 years, everything at Kapitan Andreevo has operated in a blatant conflict of interest, which has not benefited the health of Bulgarian and EU citizens," said Hristo Daskalov, executive director of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BASHA). .

A private company "was responsible both for the loading and unloading of the shipments, as well as for phytosanitary and veterinary control," Daskalov wrote in response to Politico's questions.

Thus, according to him, "operators had an interest in having fewer problems with the cargoes they were responsible for and had every incentive to hide data since they were the only ones in control of their own work."

Captain Andreevo's situation was an "open secret," said Konstantin Bachiyski, an MP from Petkov's "We continue the change" party.

"In the past, everyone knew, but until seven months ago, no one wanted to reveal it," he said.

They offer a bribe to the head of the BBAH

Until now, corruption along the border was "possible" because "high-level politics" provided an "umbrella" to protect criminal activity, the MP said, adding that "for the first time in the last 30 years", in recent months Bulgaria had "a government that wants to fight" corruption.

The Bulgarian border with Turkey has also caused concern among European officials.

In 2017, then-Member of the European Parliament Kathy Pirie, a politician from the Dutch Labor Party, complained in a question to the European Commission that "thousands of EU citizens have again suffered serious inconvenience due to corrupt practices in Bulgaria, such as people being forced to pay bribes at the border'.

But for years all these concerns were largely ignored, both in Bulgaria and at the EU level.

Bringing order to an "occupied country"

In the spring, in an attempt to restore order, the Petkov government began the process of returning control of the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing.

The Bulgarian authorities also invited foreign customs officers to visit, and on Wednesday a delegation from the General Directorate "Health and Food Safety" of the European Commission arrived.

When the government took over the inspections, his suspicions about the lack of strict controls were confirmed.

"Our laboratory data shows that in the last month and a half we have a higher percentage of samples with pesticides than last year," said Daskalov, the head of the food safety agency.

And while the government faced "huge sabotage and resistance" during the handover from control by the private company, Daskalov said officials are now in the process of building a new state-run laboratory at the border and recruiting new employees.

"What is important for Bulgarian and European citizens is that they can now rest easy - after years of harassment, the Bulgarian government has restored order at this border and established effective sanitary controls," he said.

The key challenge for Bulgaria's reformist government is that its team has to work in a "captured country" and complains that the country's judiciary largely turns a blind eye to high-level mafia affairs.

So civil servants in Petkov's government say they now fear retribution from both organized crime and prosecutors for their efforts to draw public attention to the border.

Sabev: We have taken urgent measures for the traffic through "Captain Andreevo"

"I have heaps of evidence here, said Deputy Minister Hristanov.

But there is "nothing" from prosecutors, "not even a single question," he said.

"We're very, very confident that once we're not in the executive branch, they're going to go after us - instead of going after the groups, they set up this whole scheme.

And does that bother me?

Yes, absolutely," adds Hristanov.

Bulgarian prosecutors and former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's GERB party, which dominated the country's politics for more than a decade, were the subject of mass anti-corruption protests in 2020, in which protesters accused the judiciary and government of supporting mafia interests.

But until Borissov fell from power last year, the position of the all-powerful chief prosecutor has been protected from political interference, and he has refused to comply with the Petkov government's demand that he resign.

Europe's problem too

In search of external support for the fight against the powerful mafia network in their country, many Bulgarians strongly emphasize that the scale of corruption must attract a pan-European response.

"This is not just the border of Bulgaria, it is the border of the European Union and the protection of the border is the protection of the interests of the Europeans," said Deputy Bachiiski.

The financial damage is "not only for the budget of the government in our country, but also for the budget of the European Union - so the European Union also has an interest in solving this problem."

Over the past decade, however, the administrations of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Commission, led by the center-right European People's Party, have consistently taken a soft stance on Bulgaria and avoided punishing their ally Borissov.

A Commission official said Brussels had recently sent an "urgent on-the-spot audit" in response to the concerns, but that "so far the Commission has no evidence to show that public, animal or plant health has been compromised".

The director of BABH: We will build a new laboratory for inspections of heavy-duty trucks

Miroslav Naydenov, a former minister of agriculture from the GERB administration, accused Hristanov of lying about the process by which the state transferred responsibility for food inspections.

In Bulgarian media, Naydenov was quoted as saying that the monitoring of pesticide levels had "never" been handed over to private hands.

GERB did not respond to a request for comment.

Faced with a raft of allegations of large-scale corruption, the party has publicly claimed a "zero tolerance" approach to bribery.

Some analysts note that the emphasis on the border crossing by reformist politicians in Petkov's outgoing coalition is part of the preparation for the expected election battle with GERB.

"Petkov is gathering support, holding his ground," said Dimitar Bechev, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Europe think tank, adding that "Capitan Andreevo's people are known mobsters who have legal protection."

"If you really go after corruption, GERB's clients may start running away," he added.