Head of the Customs House in Plovdiv Arrested for Protecting a New Cigarette Smuggling Ring

​Miroslav Beliashki, the Director of the Customs House in Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv, was arrested earlier today, April 30, on charges of facilitating a new cigarette smuggling ring linked to the notorious smuggler Nikola Nikolov, known as "Pascal," who has been evading justice in Serbia for months. ​

There is no official information about the raid at the moment, but early this morning special forces entered the building of the Territorial Directorate of the Customs Agency in Plodiv and started searching the office of director Miroslav Beliashki. Anti-mafia officers also conducted a search at his residence.

Beliashki was appointed to his position in mid-March 2024 by then-Customs Agency Director Petya Bankova, who was arrested two weeks later along with Marin and Stefan Dimitrov, facing charges related to Pascal's smuggling operations. Investigations revealed that Bankova had agreed to rotate regional customs directors under pressure from then-Finance Minister Assen Vassilev (co-chair of "We Continue the Change"). Vassilev has denied any wrongdoing.

According to sources from the Plovdiv Customs House, Beliashki personally attempted to facilitate the passage of a truck carrying contraband cigarettes through Bulgaria. The truck was stopped at the "Kapitan Andreevo" border checkpoint based on a tip-off from foreign authorities.

Although Kapitan Andreevo is part of the Territorial Directorate of Customs in Burgas, Belyashki appeared at the border with two armed officers in bulletproof vests, attempting to release the truck and its cargo, claiming they were to be escorted to the Vidin customs office and then exported to Romania. Intelligence suggests that this was part of a plan to route at least 15 trucks with contraband cigarettes through Bulgaria to Romania.

In the past, Martin Belishki was a PR for the former mayor of Plovdiv, Zdravko Dimitrov, and the woman with whom he lives in civil partnershi. Margarita Boycheva, has been associated with various political parties. Boycheva last worked in the Plovdiv Regional Administration during the mandate of "We Continue the Change".

Spokeswoman of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office (SCP) Desislava Petrova confirmed to BNT that Miroslav Beliashki was detained for 24 hours. The operation was carried out by the Anti-Corruption Commission, under the supervision of the SCP.