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Bulgaria as a Mafia State

14.05.2012

The May edition of the prestigious Foreign Affairs journal dedicates a topic to the Mafia States. The article claims that "In mafia states such as Bulgaria, Guinea-Bissau, Montenegro, Myanmar (aslo called Burma), Ukraine and Venezuela, the national interest and the interests of organized crime are now inextricably interwined." It is not the case when secret service uses criminal structures in its operation (CIA attempts to assassinate Castro), but a system where senior officials develop their own criminal enterprises.

The use of the term "mafia" opens room for expert discussion, but other findings of the author startle even the tough Bulgarian reader. The node between State and Crime in Bulgaria is stronger than the one in Kosovo, organized criminal groups fund the politicla parties. Crime "owns"its private members of parliaments and whole municipalities. The conclusions sound familiar, yet striking to be present on the pages of a powerful opinion maker as Foreign Relations, published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations.

The context, Bulgaria is set in:

[...]The fusing of governments and criminal groups is distinct from the more limited way in which the two have collaborated in the past. Governments and spy agencies, including those of democratic countries, have often enlisted criminals to smuggle weapons to allied insurgents in other countries or even to assassinate enemies abroad. (The CIA hairbrained attempt to enlist American mafia figures to assassinate Fidel Castro in 1960 is perhaps the best-known example). But unlike normal states, mafia states do not just occasionaly rely on criminal groups to advance particular foreign policy goals. In a mafia state, high government officials actually become integral players in, if not the leaders of, criminal enterprises, and the defense and promotion of those enterprises' businesses become official priorities. In mafia states such as Bulgaria, Guinea-Bissau, Montenegro, Myanmar (aslo called Burma), Ukraine and Venezuela, the national interest and the interests of organized crime are now inextricably interwined.[...]

[...] Last year, the Council of Europe published a report, alleging that the prime minister of Kosovo, Hashim Taci, and his pollitical allies exert "violent comtrol over the trade in heroin and other narcotics" and occupy important positions in "Kosovo's mafia-like structures of organized crime". The state-crime
nexus is perhaps even stronger in Bulgaria. [...]

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