Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05SOFIA1373
2005-08-01 15:24:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Sofia
Cable title:  

ANOTHER BULGARIAN CRIME BOSS SHOT DEAD IN DOWNTOWN

Tags:  SNAR KCRM PGOV PINR BU 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SOFIA 001373 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR KCRM PGOV PINR BU
SUBJECT: ANOTHER BULGARIAN CRIME BOSS SHOT DEAD IN DOWNTOWN
SOFIA

UNCLAS SOFIA 001373

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR KCRM PGOV PINR BU
SUBJECT: ANOTHER BULGARIAN CRIME BOSS SHOT DEAD IN DOWNTOWN
SOFIA


1. Three organized crime figures were shot dead at a popular
ice cream shop in downtown Sofia - close to the former
chancery - on Saturday evening, bringing to over two-dozen
the number of OC-related killings in the last 24 months.
Anton Miltenov (&The Beak8),Ivan Todorov (&The Ghost8),
and Nikolay Dobrev (a.k.a., Psycho) were seated at tables on
a busy street at 9:30pm when they were each shot in the head
at point-blank range by two men. Early reports claim that
the two assailants, who had parked nearby, acted as though
they were intoxicated and were arguing loudly as they
stumbled up to the table, likely in an effort to disguise
their true intent. No bystanders were injured, despite the
fact that the restaurant was crowded with patrons.


2. Miltenov, 32, was a top drug-trafficking figure in
Bulgaria and has a long criminal record, including a charge
for the attempted murder of drug smuggler Iliyan Varsanov,
with whom he had a fierce rivalry. Miltenov was believed to
be the successor of the country's top drug lord, Konstantin
Dimitrov (a.k.a., Samokovetsa),who was shot dead in
Amsterdam in 2003. Todorov and Dobrev are comparatively
minor players in the OC world, and it appears that Miltenov
was the main target of the attack. Police suspect
redistribution of the drug market in Bulgaria to be the main
motivation for Saturday's shooting. Miltenov survived a 2003
assassination attempt, in which a would-be assassin fired a
rocket-propelled grenade (RPG-7) at his car on one of Sofia's
busiest streets. The shooter missed.


3. This attack follows closely behind a number of other
assassination attempts in recent months, including a July 13
car bomb in a southern Bulgarian tourist resort near Bourgas
that killed the intended victim's two-year-old daughter and
his wife and wounded a family of German tourists. There have
been at least two other instances in which explosive devices
were placed under cars in and around Sofia earlier this
summer, though no one was killed as a result of those attacks.
LEVINE