Land on the Black Sea coast and around Bulgaria’s biggest ski resort now belongs to the nephews of Thomas “Slab” Murphy, allegedly the chief of staff of the Provisional IRA.

A reed building outside Plovdiv,a ship stopped near Varna, and a train found in Kalotina have all been found full of illegal tobacco products. Unafraid of arrest, civil servants help smugglers in Bulgaria.
Much cigarette smuggling is accomplished with the direct aid or involvement of police, border patrol or customs officers, official information about the biggest recent cases demonstrates.

A year after Bulgaria entered the European Union, foreign tobacco has won at least a third of the market Bulgartabak once nearly monopolized. Privatization of the state holding company has been blocked and muddled.