16,756 tons of waste, including 7,756 tons of hazardous waste, were found during the inspections carried out in connection with the pre-trial proceedings initiated by the Specialized Prosecutor's Office against an organized criminal group with the participation of officials on which the accused are Atanas Bobokov, Plamen Bobokov, Krassimir Zhivkov, former Deputy Minister of Environment and Water, managers of commercial companies and the director of Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water (RIEW). The waste was found in the lands of the settlements in four districts.
A total of 396 tons of hazardous waste were buried in a silage pit in the land of the town of Cherven Bryag, district Pleven and in a septic pit the village of Ruptsi, district Pleven. In the land of the town of Lom, district Montana - 501 tons of hazardous waste were buried and in the town of Pleven - 9000 tons of non-hazardous and about 5000 tons of hazardous waste. In the land of the town of Shumen - 751 tons of hazardous waste were buried and in the land of Kremikovtsi district, the city of Sofia - 1108 tons of hazardous.
According to the existing legislation in the Republic of Bulgaria, any company that generates hazardous waste is obliged to export it within one year or hand it over for temporary storage to another Bulgarian company holding a permit for further processing and recovery of waste.
However, in order to import hazardous waste into the Republic of Bulgaria, the company must have an issued notification and obtain the consent of the Ministry of Environment and Water of the Republic of Bulgaria, according to Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006. It has been found from the evidence so far gathered, that the accused Krassimir Zhivkov has started to refuse to issue such notifications and the companies generating hazardous waste have been forced to hand it over for storage to certain companies that have permission to store such waste on the territory of the country.
The company Monbat Recycling Ltd, controlled by Atanas Bobokov and Plamen Bobokov, also benefited from the scheme. The company has built a recycling factory in the town of Montana, where sulfuric acid batteries are processed. As a result of this recovery, the hazardous waste is obtained, the so-called polyethylene separator, which remains after the treatment of the batteries and is not subject to additional use and must be stored under special conditions.
The evidence gathered so far has proved that one of the accused has registered front companies for storage of hazardous waste, some of which financed by Atanas Bobokov and Plamen Bobokov.
In the course of the investigation it was found out that a contract was concluded on 25 January 2018 between “Monbat Recycling” Ltd. and one of the front companies for waste recovery with code 19 12 11 * (polyethylene separators obtained from the recovery of depreciated sulfur- acid batteries). Pursuant to this contract in 2018 “Monbat Recycling” Ltd delivered to the company 635, 28 tons of hazardous waste. Monbat Recycling Ltd delivered to another company the same amount and to a third company – 1465, 11 tons of hazardous waste.
Companies from the Monbat Group, controlled by Atanas Bobokov and Plamen Bobokov, registered in Romania, Italy and Serbia, imported large quantities of hazardous waste into the territory of the country, which were transmitted for storage to the front companies that did not have the capacity and possibility for storage and recovery of waste, including dangerous.
So far, 11 people have been prosecuted in the pre-trial proceedings.
They will be held responsible for the fact that in the period from January 2014 to 28 May 2020 on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria - Sofia district, Pleven district, Plovdiv district, Ruse district, Montana district, Shumen district, Vratsa district participated in organized criminal group within the meaning of Article 93, item 20 of the Criminal Code in order to commit crimes in the country in a coordinated manner under Article 255, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code, Article 353b, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code Article 353c, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code, Article 282, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code.
With the assistance of Eurojust, a joint investigation team has been set up between the Special Prosecutor's Office and the Prosecutor's Office of Salerno, Milan and Florence in Italy. In addition, a European Investigation Order was prepared by the competent prosecutor's office in the Republic of Romania, which was adopted by the Directorate for Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism.
Thе data disclosed, video and photo material are provided to the media after permission by the supervising prosecutor according to Article 198, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Procedure Code.