The Bulgarian Interior Ministry have launched a police operation codenamed "Border", which is currently aimed at ending corrupt police practices on the Kapitan Andreevo border frontier checkpoint with Turkey, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov was quoted as saying by Dnevnik daily on June 30 2010.
According to Tsvetanov, authorities observed that people crossing the border had been harassed and coerced into paying bribes by Bulgarian border police.
Several companies that frequented the border crossing were "tagged" by Bulgarian police in order to collect evidence. "The systematic abuse has been going on for years. We have received numerous complaints in the past from EC countries and no one did anything about it. We will put an end to it," Tsvetanov said at a press conference.
The investigation revealed that some officers regularly took small bribes ranging from five to 20 euro from people crossing the border. During the investigation controlled checks were administered on certain transport companies, drivers and tourists, while all bribes were meticulously documented, the report said.
The operation is being conducted by units from the Internal Police department along with the Interior Ministry and the chief directorate for combating organised crime CDCOC.
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