The deputy chief of Bulgaria's Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (CDCOC), Ivan Ivanov, was arrested on charges of malfeasance in office and leaking sensitive information, Dnevnik daily reported on March 18.

Ivanov has been detained by the Sofia military prosecutors on the evening of March 17 and is in preventive arrest for 72 hours, the daily said. Before the arrest, he was also relieved of his duties by the Interior Ministry.

Last week, former counter-intelligence chief Atanas Atanassov, now a member of Parliament for opposition Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, claimed he had recordings that showed a top police official reporting to businessmen about police investigations against their firms.

He then passed the information, which he claims to have received from an anonymous source, to Prosecutor General Boris Velchev. The investigation was then picked up by Bulgaria's newly-established State Agency for National Security (SANS).

Atanassov's words were backed by former CDCOC chief Valyo Tanev, who quit the directorate last year, claiming that the main reason was the fact that senior officials in the Interior Ministry were covering up for organised crime.

Tanev is now a member of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party of Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov, the former interior ministry secretary general, who quit in 2005 and is now one of the most outspoken critics of the Socialist-led cabinet and Interior Minister Roumen Petkov.

Tanev also claimed that incumbent ministry secretary general, Valentin Petrov, had lobbied for the appointment of Ivanov as deputy chief of CDCOC.

Petrov is seen as a close ally of the interior minister, who gave him a vote of confidence after news of Ivanov's arrest broke out on March 18. However, last week Petkov was just as adamant that he would not sack or suspend any top officials at the ministry, mediapool.bg pointed out.