Police in Bourgas detained a criminal group involved in blackmailing children to sell drugs

A criminal group involved in extortion and blackmail was detained in the coastal city of Bourgas. The group was collecting "protection fee" for drugs distribution.

A total of 8 people have been detained over the past two days during a specialised police operation on the territory of Bourgas. Police have been monitoring the group since February. The alleged instigator is known in the criminal circles. He is a former Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter Ilko Paskalev. The group had been blackmailing and forcing people, including children aged between 14 and 18, to sell drugs in the city. In some cases, physical aggression was used.

"Four persons in complicity, respectively as accomplices, are perpetrators and have carried out extortion against others with threats concerning their physical integrity, property and psychological influence and harassment," said Georgi Chinev, head of the District Prosecutor's Office in Bourgas.

The prosecutor's office revealed how the criminal group acted.

"One way is providing narcotic substances for sale, on their part to other persons, and subsequently, if the amount of the sale was not returned on time, the imposition “of fines" begins and “the fines” were applied for a long time. The second way - identification by the defendants of persons who distribute narcotic substances and, accordingly, the imposition of coercion on these persons by the accused perpetrators to pay them the so-called "peace fee", added Senior Commissioner Kaloyan Kaloyanov.

The criminal group was disrupted at the start of the summer season. According to the police, in the height of summer, drug dealing is on the rise.