After Sungurlare, Belitsa: police lead DPS mayor out of town hall
Organised-crime investigators and the DANS security agency search Belitsa municipality. DPS leader Peevski rushes to the town and calls the police presence “unheard of”.
Symbolic image · Photo: User№101 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
After the raid in Sungurlare, investigators have targeted another municipality: in Belitsa in south-western Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad region), police on Wednesday led the mayor out of the town hall, the BTA news agency reported. Police officers, gendarmerie and staff of the Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (GDBOP) were at the scene. Media reports say the DPS mayor was detained; there was initially no official confirmation from the authorities.
The operation by GDBOP and the State Agency for National Security (DANS) began at around 8 a.m., according to the Eurocom portal; documents were seized at the town hall and, according to Nova, at the mayor's home. The checks reportedly concern suspected irregularities in public procurement and EU funds linked to the Road Infrastructure Agency. The mayor is presumed innocent; no charges or statement from prosecutors have been made public so far.
DPS MPs and party leader Delyan Peevski travelled to Belitsa the same morning. Peevski called the police presence “unheard of” and said he did not know what role DANS was playing, since the agency has no investigative powers. Residents and mayors of nearby villages gathered in the town centre.