Another high profile police operation, codenamed The Armourers, was carried out overnight on August 11 2010, Bulgarian media reported.

According to Interior Ministry reports, police raids are not restricted only to Sofia but are throughout the country, in Bulgaria's second biggest city of Plovdiv, as well as Kazanluk and Gradina village. The operation is still ongoing, media sources said.

Three persons were arrested during the operation: According to Focus news agency, they have been identified as Plamen Nikolov, aged 50, with a criminal record for robbery, arrested in Kazanluk. Another man, named Rasho Rashev, aged 48, also with criminal record, was apprehended in Plovdiv, while Stefan Stefanov, aged 47, who does not have a criminal record, was arrested in Sofia.

Until now, police have seized four AK-47 assault rifles, six carbines, 13 pistols, five sub-machine guns, four grenades, two mines, a revolver, more than 2000 rounds of ammunition of various calibres, Kalashnikov magazine clips, three suppressors, spare barrels, as well as hundreds of AK-47 spare kits.

"I think that this is a solid evidence for the Bulgarian judicial system. I reckon that The Armourers operation, with the evidence collected and the type of people arrested and their involvement into illegal arms trade, is a serious step against organised crime," Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told Bulgarian media.

"Such hardware, as the Prime Minister had mentioned on a previous occasion, are not used for sawing but for the execution of serious crime," he said.

Additionally, the police raided an arms production work-shop in the village of Kran, district of Kazanluk.

Tsvetanov was angered when earlier in August, the Bulgarian Court of Appeals decided to release on bail four out of five men arrested in the much publicised "Killers" case on August 3 2010. Regarding that decision the Interior Minister said that "the Mafia has its own country".

Tsvetanov said that the release of the suspects from the high-profile cases "Killers" and "All Trumps" would have serious consequences.

"I have always hoped that there will be change in the judicial system for Bulgaria to drag itself out of the hole that it has been stuck in for the past 20 years," he said.