A year after it was formed, the State Agency for National Security (SANS) decided to do a little explaining of what it actually does and how.

At a March 25 seminar for journalists, agency officials said that much of the reporting on SANS in the media had little to do with what the agency actually did, which created an impression that was not accurate.

Some headlines in the Bulgarian media referred to SANS as "The Bulgarian FBI" which, however flattering, was not an accurate description, SANS officials said.  

Accurate or not, in its first year of operation SANS managed to establish itself as the body that Bulgarians seem to trust the most. At least that was the impression journalists got from the seminar, held in SANS’ headquarters.

Besides statistics about the number of people investigated by SANS in 2008, reporters were given the message that SANS was far from being "the super agency", another headline often seen in the Bulgarian media.  

SANS does not conduct "interrogations" as the media have described what took place when some underworld crime figures were invited to SANS headquarters. Furthermore, SANS had carried out no arrests, even though the law establishing the agency gives it the right to do so.

According to SANS officials, all of the arrests reported in the media in the past year as "SANS arrests" had happened as part of a joint operation with either police, prosecutors, customs or tax officials. The reason: SANS currently lacked places to keep its detainees, which was why it was using police premises.   

"SANS arrests" became a popular issue after small town mayor Ahmed Bashev and Mourat Boshnak, teacher of Islam in the village of Ribnovo, were taken to SANS’ headquarters at 6am on March 16 on suspicion that they were preaching radical Islam at the local school.

Both returned home later that day thanking SANS for its work, but many asked why a team of masked SANS officials had to be sent down to Ribnovo to collect the two men when some of the most prominent alleged underworld bosses previously had been invited to visit SANS "for a coffee" - apparent double standards.

The explanation offered to reporters at the seminar was that Bashev was collected from his home at 6am for the sake of SANS team’s safety. If they had gone during the day, Bashev could have summoned the whole village to a rally. This raises the question why the agency charged by law with protecting the country’s national security should be nervous about dealing with a village mayor.

After all, SANS said that Bashev was not arrested, nor he was detained. He was asked to go with the SANS team that woke him and his family up at 6am, knocking on the door wearing masks and firearms. All the stories about SANS dragging Bashev out from his bed in front of his terrified family were untrue, SANS said, presenting it as yet another example of how the media have misinterpreted its actions.

SANS’ first year, in numbers

Since April 2008, when SANS went into operation, the agency has prevented criminal activity by 405 people, according to its statistics. It has given prosecutors information on more than 380 cases, which have led to more than 170 pre-trial investigations, of which 10 have ended in sentences handed down by courts. A total of 164 financial crimes have been uncovered - 28 involving money laundering, 41 corruption and nine cases of embezzlement of state funds.

A total of 3.5 tons of marijuana have been seized, as well as 50kg of material used in the production of synthetic drugs and 77kg of heroin.

Of the 6886 applications filed by foreigners for permits for long-term residence, 49 have been turned down. Six of the 1307 applications for granting permanent residence permits have been turned down because of false documents, drug dealing, violations of labour legislation and financial crimes. A total of 250 visa applications out of 4907 have been turned down.

The reasons were drug dealing, participation in international terrorist organisations, human trafficking and fake marriages. Thirty-seven of the 11 900 applications for granting Bulgarian citizenship have been turned down on the bases of being a threat to Bulgaria’s national security.