Bulgaria was no longer regarded by the United States as a major drug producer, but as a drug transit country, Interior Minister Roumen Petkov told private broadcaster bTV on March 5.

Petkov is in the US, where he met representatives of the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INLEA), which released its latest international narcotics control strategy report in early March.

The report on Bulgaria's involvement in fighting drug trafficking was described by Petkov as “objective and useful to Bulgaria”. The report was a positive analysis for the country, he said.

INLEA said in the report that in 2007 Bulgaria continued to be primarily a drug transit country and, to a lesser extent, a producer of narcotics. The report said Bulgaria continued to be a source of synthetic drug production, and synthetic drugs have overtaken heroin as the most widely used drugs in Bulgaria. Amphetamines were produced in Bulgaria for the domestic market as well as for export to Turkey and the Middle East.

“Heroin distributed in Europe moves through Bulgaria from Southwest Asia and via the Northern route, while chemicals used for making heroin move through Bulgaria to Turkey and the Middle East. Marijuana and cocaine are also transported through Bulgaria,” the report said. To fight all that, Bulgaria “continued to make incremental progress in improving its law enforcement capabilities and customs services”.

The report did acknowledge Bulgaria's efforts in fighting heroin trafficking by saying that legal and structural reforms in law enforcement have been enacted, but at the same time noted that “effective implementation remains a challenge”. Bulgarian law enforcement agencies, investigators, prosecutors and judges required more assistance than what they are getting now to develop their capacity to investigate, prosecute and adjudicate illicit narcotics trafficking cases and other serious crimes effectively, the report said.

As another example of Bulgaria's drug-fighting efforts the report cited the case of the arrest of a notorious underworld boss and eleven members of his importing and trafficking organization operating in the southeast Black sea coastal area. However, again the report said there were no convictions of major figures involved in drug trafficking, or other serious related crimes such as organized criminal activity.

The notorious underworld boss is Dimitar Zhelayzkov, aka Ochite (the Eyes), was arrested last year in Nessebur and cut a deal with the prosecution by pleading guilty to all charges in exchange for a lesser sentence.

Corruption was still a challenge for the Government in 2007. It was described by the report as a “serious problem”. During the year, 131 government officials, of them 43 police officers, were dismissed over corruption allegations. From January to October 2007, the Prosecutior's Office has submitted indictments against 24 police officers involved in possession, production or distribution of narcotics, the report said.

The full version of the report by countries can be found at http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2008/vol1/html/100781.htm