site.btaInterior Ministry to Share Some Fentanyl Lab Case Materials with US Authorities

Some of the materials collected in the case involving a fentanyl laboratory will be shared with US authorities, Interior Ministry acting Secretary General Lyubomir Nikolov told an interview with Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on Friday.

Nikolov was speaking about a recently uncovered laboratory in Sofia's Fakulteta neighbourhood, which produced and distributed the drug. On Tuesday, the General Directorate Combating Organized Crime announced that it had dismantled the fentanyl lab that had supplied the entire country.

"I am not aware of anything similar done in the Balkans, which makes our success so significant," Nikolov said, adding that fentanyl is a relatively new phenomenon in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian authorities are in constant contact with US agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

"We will analyse the situation and provide some of the materials we have collected to their experts, who may compare what was found here with developments in the United States, so that we can better understand the situation and see where we stand," Nikolov said.

He said Bulgarian authorities had been monitoring the spread of fentanyl more actively for the past three to four years and that the drug had almost entirely replaced heroin. "If we do not take this substance away from people suffering from addiction, they cannot recover," the Ministry's acting Secretary General said.

Pre-trial proceedings are under way and all materials seized from the laboratory are being examined. Not all of them are prohibited by law and some can be purchased legally, he said.

Nikolov said it was possible that the dismantled facility was the only fentanyl laboratory in Bulgaria. However, authorities would have to monitor whether the gap left after its closure would be filled by new criminal groups, which would most likely attempt to do so.

He also described the operation in the Black Sea city of Burgas, reported by media on Thursday, as an example of a successful joint operation between partner services, in this case with Ukraine. Authorities established that an organized criminal group had been involved in producing and distributing synthetic drugs, he said.

The operation uncovered a synthetic drug production site, with two people detained in Bulgaria, one of whom was identified as the leader of a Ukrainian organized crime group, Nikolov said. According to him, the evidence indicated that the distribution network was international, with only a small quantity of the drug remaining in Bulgaria.