The scandalous “golden laboratory” at the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing is connected with the no less scandalous “golden puddle” and “golden parking lot”. What they have in common is that they are controlled by persons associated with the drug lord Hristophoros “Taki” Amanatidis and the opposition Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party, an investigation by BIRD found.

The issue of the “Euro Lab” laboratory, to which the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) has exclusively assigned the testing of imported vegetables and fruits at Kapitan Andreevo, surfaced in recent days and reached the Parliamentary Committee for the Prevention and Counteraction of Corruption. At the meeting on May 26, the owner of “Euro Lab” Vasil Dimitrov appeared before the Committee, and lawmaker Konstantin Bachiyski announced information about the connections of “Euro Lab” with significant figures from the underground world such as Amanatidis and Razmig Chakaryan.

According to Bachiyski, the connection is the lawyer of “Euro Lab” Ventsislav Milushev, who was also present at the meeting. Vasil Dimitrov denied knowing Chakaryan and Amanatidis and complained that someone wanted to take away his laboratory business, which he resourcefully installed at the border. However, his business history says otherwise.

The information about the “Euro Lab” laboratory, installed at the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing, is not new. As early as 2015, Capital wrote that it represents the BFSA and is profiting significantly from the testing of agricultural products. At that time, the laboratory was owned by “Interpred Eurologistik“. In turn, this company is owned by “Interpred-BG“, in which co-owners through “Progressive Business Development” are Razmig Kerope “Ami” Chakaryan and Miroslav Petkov .

Puddle + parking + laboratory = BGN 850 per heavy duty truck

The first “piggy bank” upon entering Bulgaria is passing through the “golden puddle” for vehicle disinfection. It is managed by “PFC” company. The company has repeatedly changed its ownership over the years, but in its most profitable times it was owned by Filip Stoyanov, manager of the “Slatina-Kara” stock exchange, who was represented by Krasimir “Karo” Kamenov’s wife Svetlana Kamenova. Razmig Chakaryan was the manager of “Slatina-Kara” from 2010 to 2016.

The second “piggy bank” is a parking lot. An on-site inspection by politician Maya Manolova in July 2021 found that foreign trucks are directed to a “golden parking lot”, where they pay EUR 24 each. It is also owned by Chakaryan’s company.

The third “piggy” bank is the laboratory for testing agricultural products. It is also related to Chakaryan and Karo, as will be seen below. Thus, the 3-in-1 comprehensive service of trucks with agricultural goods entering Bulgaria from Turkey costs an average of BGN 850 per truck.

The income is actually more, since the parking lot has a casino and a restaurant to make life easier for the drivers “detained” there.

This scheme worked perfectly for years under the GERB government, until the first caretaker government after the 2021 elections attacked it. The inspections that have begun have revealed that “PFC” is the company with the largest cash balance – BGN 32 million. After eight months, the National Revenue Agency was able to find it and count the cash, according to the final protocol of February 2022 published by the Agency.

Taki’s shadow

The central figure in the scheme is Razmig “Ami” Chakaryan, who is connected through numerous company participations with Krasimir “Karo” Kamenov, known as the right hand of the drug lord Hristophoros “Taki” Amanatidis.

It is said that Chakaryan lives on a family basis with Magdalena Tepavicharova also known as Maggie Bader, who became famous after rumors spread that she is the notorious Mata Hari, who used to pay intimate visits to GERB leader and former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in his residence in Sofia’s suburb of Bankya.

Otherwise, Chakaryan became publicly known after he and other tugs from the “Omega 69” company (formerly owned by Karo’s wife) beat up journalists from Nova TV on the Trakia highway. The founder of “Omega 69” Mihail Mladzhov was recently spectacularly arrested by the anti-organized crime police unit for drug trafficking.

Already in 2015, Capital indicated the connection of Chakaryan and Kamenov with the ring of companies that hold both the “golden puddle” at Kapitan Andreevo and the “golden laboratory” for pesticide research on imported fruits and vegetables.

At that time, the “Euro Lab” laboratory was owned by “Interpred Eurologistic”, which was owned by “Interpred-BG” of Razmig Chakaryan and Miroslav Petkov.

The parking lot is owned by the company ” IBTT” , in which the majority owner is “Progressive Building 2016″ , sole property of Chakaryan, a reference in the Property Registry showed.

After the connections of the puddle, the parking lot and the laboratory to the underground bosses became all too visible, “Euro Lab” changed hands at the end of last year. But the trail leads back to the same protagonists.

The current owner of the BFSA-accredited laboratory “Euro Lab” is the company ” Euro Lab 2011 ” of Vasil Dimitrov. It was established in November 2021, and on December 31, it signed a contract with the BFSA. Despite its short existence on the market, it managed to sign contracts with 700 Turkish carriers to represent them before the BFSA.

Dimitrov, who appeared before the Committee for the Prevention and Counteraction of Corruption, has a scarce business history, but he also has a connection with Chakaryan and Karo.

The connection is through the company “Humane Treatment of Animals“. Dimitrov was the owner there before he sold his shares to two Turkish citizens and to the Hexala company .

Co-owners of “Hexala” until 2017 were Chakaryan through “Progressive Business Development” and Svetlana Kamenova – Karo ‘s wife .

And connection with GERB and SIC

In the tangle of companies and fake persons along Kapitan Andreevo, the most interesting is the trail that leads to GERB and the group SIC, to which GERB leader Boyko Borisov was close in the past.

Chakaryan‘s partner in the key company ” Interpred-BG ” is Miroslav Petkov, exposed by the Files Commission (the body tasked with examining the files of the former Communist secret police, the State Security, DS) as an employee of the DS. As Capital points out, he is a partner with the municipal councilor from GERB in the Sofia municipal council Iskra Angelova in the company “Legal Financial Consulting“.

Petkov has interests in the construction business and in the 1990s was a partner with the infamous Slavcho Hristov from the Olympus circle. At the same time, Hristov is a partner with mobster Nikolay “the Little Marguin” Marinov in the companies Selecta AD and Chobi-90. This can be seen from references in the Daxy system.

The SIC connection is also strengthened by the fact that Miroslav Petkov owned 5% in “Union Ins” – the insurance company that SIC created in 1998 to avoid the restrictions in the insurance law against criminal companies, emphasizes Capital.

It is noteworthy that it was the lawmakers from GERB who zealously defended in the Committee the new owner of “Euro Lab”, Vasil Dimitrov, who is undoubtedly a straw man.

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