Yes, Mr. Mitov, morality is indeed a must. Behind him stood those guys on the ground in Plovdiv, threatened by their superiors, who with their action gave us hope that not all is lost.
The thwarted operation against a cigarette smuggling channel in Plovdiv resembles a season of the cult blockbuster "Bad Boys". This time the producer is not Jerry Bruckheimer and the genre is not comedy. The episode took place on the outskirts of the hills and to the surprise of the "usual suspects" The action involved a "magnificent seven" (the number doesn't really matter), who during the action surprisingly changed the scenario in an attempt to foil the planned operation.
All this happens on November 19th of last year, when officers of the GDBOP-Plovdiv are tracking a suspicious vehicle and thus arrive at a farmyard, where pallets of smuggled cigarettes are being unloaded from a TIR at that moment. According to the information provided by the civil association BOETS, the team has informed its superiors that if they don't act immediately, the smugglers will get away. However, it turns out that this is exactly what the bosses want. They order the officers to withdraw and … call the smugglers to warn them of the danger. Despite this, the officers continue the operation and detain them.
The plot, you might say, is banal. The topic is among the most exploited crime stories, in which the climax occurs when you catch the biggest boss. And he is either corrupt or addicted, or both. Around him are arranged people with different affiliations, different personal stories and different human failures.
Where is Daniel Mitov and who is his boss?
From the Minister of Internal Affairs we did not hear a clear, unambiguous criticism and expression of disapproval of what happened. Daniel Mitov said that it is "high time to end these speculations of organizations that serve as a wastebasket for resolving some internal disputes of people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs".
He attacked the non-governmental organization BOETS and called them "callers on duty". The minister was still forced to react, and senior commissioner Kalin Litov - appointed by Peevski's Kalin Stoyanov - is no longer deputy director of the Directorate for the Investigation of Criminal Investigations. But he has neither been fired nor disciplined. We learned about the others in the company that they have been transferred somewhere in the system. Folklore calls this a "political umbrella".
A minister who looks like a screen
As a result of the events, the PP-DB announced that they would demand the resignation of the Minister of the Interior if he does not investigate the case.
However, what kind of investigation can we expect from the same person who called the archive of former investigator Petyo Evroto "mythical"? And who spoke as a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, justifying its refusal to investigate signals of illegal actions by police officers.
Daniel Mitov was one of the surprising appointments in the Zhelyazkov cabinet. Surprising precisely because of his appointment as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was clear to everyone that he does not know the system, nor is he prepared to take up this position. Why Daniel Mitov accepted a role that looks like a screen is a question whose answer we do not know.
Morals, Mitov!
Daniel Mitov is a collective image of that educated, cocky, dexterous, world-traveled group of scoundrels who surf the political waves of the time with the mask of bearers of the new morality. He was Ivan Kostov's deputy in Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, flew through Meglena Kuneva's "Bulgaria of the Citizens" Movement and parked with Boyko Borisov in 2021.
In one of his interviews, Mitov said that if he were not involved in politics, he would be involved in something close to it - "non-governmental organizations, civil causes". We should probably ask his boss about what Minister Mitov's current cause is. We can doubt that both of them are not averse to smuggling. But until we get answers, we will demand Mitov's resignation. Because in that same interview from 2009, Daniel Mitov said: "Morale is a mandatory condition on the path to achieving certain goals".
Morale, Mitov! Both personal and professional. Behind which stood those guys in the field in Plovdiv, threatened by their superiors, who with their actions gave us hope that not all resistance forces are irretrievably lost.
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This comment expresses the author's personal opinion and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and the DV as a whole.