Bulgaria's two vice-PMs - Minister of Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov and FinMin Simeon Djankov - together with customs head Vanyo Tanov made a public showing together inspecting the uncovering of a large shipment of contraband cigarettes.
Three large trucks with smuggled cigarettes have been detained at the Ilinden checkpoint at the Greece border overnight. The total catch was of 1500 master-boxes.
The three top officials were apparently in good humor, just a day after a scandal broke after secret tapes were released of a conversation in which Tanov accused in front of his senior Djankov fellow vice-PM Tsvetanov of incompetence and ulterior motivation.
Tanov has also expressed resentment precisely over the alleged fact that Tsvetanov was doing all he can to ascribe all successes in cigarette smuggling prevention to the Ministry of Interior, rather than to the Customs Agency at the Ministry of Finance, which is actually in charge of that field.
Thursday Minister of Interior Tsvetanov said he will not comment, as not enough was clear about the source, quality and context of the conversation.
On his part, customs chief Tanov said he sees "no scandal" in the tape, expressing uncertainty about whether such a conversation actually took place.
Three tapes of conversations between Customs Agency head Gen. Vanyo Tanovwith his superiors – Finance Minister Simeon Dajnkov and Deputy Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov – were releаsed at a news conference Wednesday by the Galeriaweekly, a paper believed to be the mouthpiece of Aleksei Petrov, former special agent of the State National Security Agency DANS, who has been investigated on organized crime charges since his arrest in the much advertised "Operation Octopus" in February 2010.
The Galeria staff said they received the tapes through the mail on December 27, 2010.
The full transcripts of the tapes reveal a wide-ranging conflict between Finance Minister Simeon Djankov and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, as well as pressure on part of Tsvetanov on Customs Agency Director Vanyo Tanov, who complains that Tsvetanov and the Interior are pressing him and his staff not to check on potential abuses by certain large companies, and to focus instead on others. Novinite
