In Bulgaria dead men do tell tales

The notorious Angel Hristov won infamy as part of the "Galevi Brothers" duo. This infamy has continued even in death, as although he was ostensibly abroad and sought under an Interpol Red Notice, Hristov's corpse suddenly turned up at a funeral agency in Bulgaria. Now authorities are reaching for explanations... which in the case of the Galevis are simply not easy to find. 

By Preston Smith and Milena Hristova

On June 5—or possibly some time before—the corpse of a notorious, fugitive Bulgarian gangster was interred at a funeral agency with a death certificate issued by a hospital in the town of Dupnitsa.

That part is simple. Gangsters die, they are interred and buried just like anyone else. In some countries their funerals are legend, but this is typically where the mystery stops.

Only this time nobody could say how said gangster arrived at the funeral agency.

Only the hospital denied it produced a death certificate.

Only this gangster should have been serving a prison sentence.

Only he somehow escaped justice and left the country, although nobody knows just how.

Only he was sought abroad on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice and nobody could find him.

Only he was not supposed to have been able to re-enter Bulgaria at all.

Only nobody can really say with any certainty just how he died.

Only—and this is not even be the final “only”—there is one other fact: this gangster was known as one of the notorious Galevi brothers.

Only the brothers were not related, and Galev was not his name.

His name was Angel Hristov, long-time partner with the equally notorious Plamen Galev—a pair who long ago made their rep as the head of a crime gang specializing in racketeering, extortion, intimidation and pretty much anything in between. Hristov is now said to have died on June 3, but, as is clear, his life—and death—was anything but simple, and now even the passing of the former gangster has created embarrassing questions for the state.

Hristov the notorious…

In truth, things didn’t have to go bad. Plamen and Hristov were in the beginning… cops. Or more than that, as they worked under the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior during the wild 1990s as part of the Bulgarian Specialized Counter-Terrorism Unit, as well as for the National Service to Combat Organized Crime.

And by all accounts they were good at the job. Good, but not necessarily satisfied. Both had a wide array of talent, and soon they resigned from the services to set up businesses in the town of Dupnitsa.  Yet even then it seemed Galevis' “dabble” into organized crime was already in earnest.

According to Wikileaks cables addressed to the US State Department and US Department of the Treasury, this dabble was evident by 2008, following the revelation that then-current Interior Minister Rumen Petkov […] negotiated with both while they were under investigation for organized crime.

The cable added that “the pair was later arrested and charged with torture, prostitution, blackmail, extortion, and drug running--before being freed and granted temporary immunity in order to run for Parliamentary seats during the July 5 national election.”

Although the focus of the above was not on murder—a surprise, considering the infamous period between 2001-2005 when gang killings were de rigueur—it was clear that both were powerful, politically connected and simply knew very well how to work the system.

And not only did they appear to have forced “negotiations” with then Minister of the Interior Rumen Petkov, and their businesses, both legal and illegal continued to expand. The cable also added that "despite losing the election and immunity,"  Sofia City Prosecutor Nikolay Kokinov quietly released both on bail. Moreover, Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Appeals at the time also ruled that the Galevi case would be held in the Kyustendil District Court rather than in Sofia, thus allowed the Galevis “to be tried in an area where they have significantly more support and have practically ruled for the last decade.”

Yet time waits for no man, and as people age, as jobs or positions change, even the toughest of gangsters lose influence. By early 2011—and quite possibly due to pressure from both the US and the EU—the pair’s run of infamy had come to an end. Although the Kyustendil court predictably acquitted both, prosecutors appealed and Galev and Hristov were found guilty by a Sofia Appellate Court in 2011.

True, there was some doubt that the gangsters would serve time, but this doubt was erased when a cassation attempt failed in the Bulgarian Supreme Court in 2012.

Or so people thought. For only days later both mobsters vanished with zero time served.

When things got ugly…

Although of late it is Serbia that has become known for glorifying gangster culture, in Bulgaria the Galevi story was much the same. Sources contacted by The Corners admitted that many (with the “many” ranging from lawyers to cops to even members of the judiciary) had a bit of a laugh over the disappearance of the Galevis. For just how did they go missing? To paraphrase the glorious British gangster film, Snatch, they were not exactly a set of car keys, and in fact, in person the pair were the epitome of the “gangster look.”

Think: tough, no-necked, impeccably dressed and brutal (with a bit of Italian style).

Which raised a number of rather humorous question: just how could two notorious wise guys who looked like that leave the country? And live freely on the lam? (Interpol Red Notice be damned)  And this was not even a matter of physical appearance. As “mob legends,” the Galevis were publicly visible, viewed by some as local heroes, as somewhat thuggish enforcers who did however keep drugs and crime off the streets.

In short, they were more than recognizable. They were famous.

And some might even say respected. Although on this point, as is always the case in the world of organized crime, reality is brutal too.

The life and times of the Galevis…

As home-town stories go, the story of the brothers who are not brothers is not pretty. But with regard to back story, The Corners was able to reach a source who claimed to have inside information on the gang, as well as on Hristov himself. The witness was close to Hristov for years, but the picture painted is not pretty. Unsurprisingly, the source demanded full anonymity--although The Corners was able to establish bona-fides in the sense of the source’s credibility, probability of insider knowledge and past record.

According to this source, Plamen Galev was adopted but grew up in Dupnitsa. Later the “brothers” entered the second-hand car market, as well as a number of other businesses, but a chief source of income soon became smuggling and arms trading.

Here the source confirmed that the pair were not to be messed with. They were violent and soon controlled Dupnitsa, bu curiously, the Galevis were on the surface somewhat old-fashioned. As in they said “no” to drugs. This in fact gained them some admiration—and here the tales of the gang-enforced ban are also bona-fide, as at one point the gang battered and effectively exiled a local son-of-a-local politician/business woman for selling narcotics—an incident that got the Galevis attacked in the press for their efforts.

Yet in some circles the Galevis the local-hero/wise-guys-doing-good legend still remains. At one point a journalist was beaten severely by thugs to the point of broken bones, this following an expose on a local bank robbery, as well as another piece on the paramilitary-style organization the brothers had created to “hold the town hostage.” But in a bizarre twist of fate the Galevis took it upon themselves to provide bodyguards for the very same journalist previously assaulted.

Go figure.

But good rep or bad rep, by 2008 both Hristov and Galev had been prosecuted and were facing serious prison time.

Which was never served. The pair vanished seemingly without effort and without a trace and became fugitives. An Interpol Red Notice was ineffective, and all that seemed certain was that the Galevis were abroad. Various magazines published reports that they had travelled to the Seychelles or to New Zealand or even South Africa. Yet the source was adamant that none of those locations were the truth, and in truth, the source’s claim was far more believable.

“They were in London.”

Wilder theories… or realities

London.

London makes sense. In fact, during the first decade of the millennium many gangsters across CEE fled to London. But this time around “whys” may be far more important than the “wheres.” According to the source, the Galevis were also under protection. And receiving specialist training by the services of a powerful foreign government.

But there is more: the source added that both were spirited out of the country inside the vehicle of said government, and that, ironically, both became informers and advisors for that government’s far-reaching anti-narcotics police force.

And all of this under the very nose of the Bulgarian government.

“The trial against them was launched by the Bulgarian State,” said the source. “If we have to be more precise, we must say the trial against them was launched by then Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and the people behind him.”

The source is adamant with regard to the above statements, but also it should be said that The Corners could not verify this information, and other information cannot be revealed for the source’s protection. Yet there not only is there a certain logic to the above statements, but a logic that covers all sides.

First, Bulgaria was under pressure to show that it was getting tough on organized crime.

Second, what better way to get an inside track on narcotics trafficking than to co-opt two police-trained and former agents of the Ministry of Interior. Two former agents who had also shown no tolerance for traffickers. Especially, as despite the Galevis supposed crackdown on drug dealers in Dupnitsa, the town was part of well-known trafficking routes for amphetamines and cocaine both.

Then there are the state conspiracies. And crime conspiracies.

“Dupnitsa is the largest market for imported second-hand cars in Bulgaria,” claimed the source. “Here there were also the old state security channels. The Galevis controlled the market in Dupnitsa, but they also controlled what was happening in Italy.”

This meant the illegal trade in used cars. Vehicles were allegedly purchased in Milan and from there shipped illegally across the border Bulgaria. This was lucrative and relatively simple… for mobsters anyway.

But there was yet another twist.

A convenient bust?

“The Galevis are just the convenient black sheep we all must hate,” the source said. “Other people are behind them, and here there are likely members of the state, as otherwise, the Galevis would not have been able to turn Dupnitsa into their own property.”

The implication here is also that there may have been other state players eager to get a piece of the pie. On this point, a local detective known to The Corners stated that what is certain is that the brothers began to lose influence. A number of rivals emerged keen to run narcotics and also trade in illegal arms.

“It was precisely these rivals, not public lack of tolerance towards them or Bulgaria's European orientation that accelerated their path to the courtroom,” the detective said.

This detective also stated that the pair also had ears everywhere, and that they were “warned in advance about the outcome of the case in the Supreme Court, which sentenced them to five years in jail.”

Which very well have meant it was time to make a deal.

But could this simply be conspiracy theory? The ramblings of those willing to speak ill after a mobster’s death?

Possibly, but as wild as the above claims sound, more recent events—those that can be confirmed with regard to Angel Hristov’s death—are equally difficult to fathom.

In short, the crossing of borders and even a secret death certificate is less difficult to believe than it is that Hristov and Galev had external training, protection and internal help from members of the Bulgarian state.

A quick review of the facts brings this point home: somehow neither were picked up by the aforementioned Interpol Red Notice—and once again, neither are types that are particularly difficult to identify. Traveling to the West would ostensibly require cover, multiple passports, etc. For argument’s sake, this indeed could be covered by a foreign government.

Additionally, Hristov somehow did manage to return to Bulgaria, crossing the border, according to sources, including those of The Corners, multiple times.

Likewise, various Bulgarian media have confirmed that Hristov’s body was “discovered” in a funeral agency on June 5. His death certificate was issued by the St. Ivan Rilski private hospital in Dupnitsa, although the hospital has denied this claim.

Reportedly, he entered the country—probably by a land route—but suffered a heart attack soon after. That said, what is also undeniable is that cross-border travel plus death plus a death certificate plus funeral arrangements require a wide array of official arrangements—arrangements that would seemingly impact border guards, police, hospital staff and other local officials.

Which means that now, albeit after the fact, key officials have become quite officially involved. Police were alerted after Hristov’s corpse, complete with a death certificate, showed up at a Dupnitsa funeral home. This certificate prompted an autopsy, and this prompted the Ministry of the Interior to publicly estimate the actual time of death—at least according to the certificate already issued—as having taken place on June 3.

Yet still the stories are not quite straight.

One tale is that he passed away in Resilovo while at home. Another is that he died while at the private hospital, despite the denial of said hospital, but  here police appear to have confirmed this to have been the case. Yet still there are discrepancies as to who actually signed off on the certificate for the corpse.

Mystery upon mystery. Then again, when asked how Hristov crossed into Bulgaria during his visits home, local sources offered something akin to a group shrug.

After all, he specialized in the arms trade and the smuggling of cars. He had connections, routes, and, it is easy to assume, contact with less-than-ethical border guards.

Which begs the question: Could the Galevis truly have remained active and under the radar for years? And could they have been attempting to re-open past channels to make money in Bulgaria again? And could they have been working for handlers from other countries, including the US?

Could a combination of all of the above be true?

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Then again, dead men tell no tales. Until serious investigations begin anyway.

And then sometimes they do.

 

Copyright The Corners July 2023/all rights reserved.