1 Million BGN and €30,000 in Cash Found at the Home of Doctors Accused of Selling Methadone

Authorities have discovered 1 million Bulgarian levs (BGN) and €30,000 in cash at the home of two doctors from Plovdiv, arrested for the illegal sale of methadone. Investigators also came across illegal quantities of the substance, the sale of which is banned by law.

At the request of the prosecution, Fanya and Kostadin Tanev were ordered into permanent custody. An expert from the Regional Health Inspectorate told investigators that the quantity of methadone found in the doctors' clinic far exceeded the legal limit. Witnesses in the case testified that Dr. Fanya Taneva frequently supplied 15 ampoules at a time to a patient on the programme, instead of the legally permitted single dose. Other patients often received smaller doses than prescribed. Authorities are now investigating where the methadone that was not reaching patientswas was being diverted.

Patients enrolled in the treatment programme told BNT that the doctors were demanding payment for the methadone doses, which are supposed to be free. The doctors reportedly saw nothing illegal in the large sums of cash found at their home. Their lawyer explained that both the accused and their parents had worked abroad.

Marin Peltekov, Prosecutor at the Plovdiv District Prosecutor’s Office in Plovdiv, stated:

“I said over one million.”

BNT: “What is their explanation?”

Prosecutor: “That it is personal savings.”

BNT: “Earned in Bulgaria?”

Prosecutor: “No, they claim it’s from salaries earned abroad.”

On June 5, Plovdiv District Prosecutor’s Office has brought charges against a 54-year-old woman and a 56-year-old man for jointly committing a drug-related offense. On June 2, 2025, in Plovdiv, acting as a programme director for methadone treatment of drug-dependent individuals and as a doctor operating within a psychiatric clinic, the two were found to have possessed high-risk narcotic substances—methadone—with the intent to distribute, without the required legal authorization.

The woman has also been charged with distribution of a high-risk narcotic substance—methadone weighing a net total of 278 grammes.

Additionally, a 50-year-old man has been charged for acquiring methadone (total weight: 278 grams) with the intent to distribute, again without the necessary permit—a crime under Article 354a, Paragraph 1 of the Bulgarian Penal Code.

On June 2, 2025, a check was conducted at the psychiatric clinic involved in the methadone treatment programme for individuals with substance dependencies. The programme was being run by the two doctors mentioned above. It was established that, on the same day, the 50-year-old man visited the clinic and received the aforementioned quantity of methadone, despite not being listed as a registered patient in the treatment programme.

All three individuals have been detained for up to 72 hours by order of the supervising prosecutor. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.