BULGARIA, STUNG BY PAPAL CASE CHARGES, CRACKS DOWN ON SMUGGLING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120034-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 15, 2010
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: May 15, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
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ART I..y~ 15 May 19 8 3
ON PAGE .~/..~ J
STAT BiiIgariaStwig by Papal ~Uares
Cracks Down on Sm
,By-aonathan C..Randal Likewise, :Bulgaria supplied weapons
iv,~ninsscors ~osc Foroum se"Ice to righ-VA' ng 'Christian- militias in
SOFIA, Bulgaria-This'' Commu- Lebanon until` local .~ixmm~nists
nist state, evidently-embarrassed by asked it to stop.
allegations of participation an the Bulgarian authorities- are -notice
1981 papaleshooting.and: I varietyof ably:.ill at ease concerning these rev-
other illicitr activities, Chas.-started "elations, -partly =because .-.they.:
cracking down on; international drug ` hoped in recent:years:to forge anoth
and arms -tra'ff'ickers who -have op er-image abroad.: Bulgaria's-ec?nomy._
erated- ereoiimore than'ledecade. was improving from a tow base,and-
In the' new antismugglmg ear- . authorities made - a consciouseffort-:
paiga, Buigana in recent -months has, to promote Bulgarian nationalism
tightened'?~pcat :checks at airports, without unduly straining its ' radi
land ';#roatiers and ?seaports.. The tional. status as , the .Soviet ' BIoc's
state-controlled press has tmazmpeted most obedient member.
a series la . rests. Diplomats, .:intelligence analysts
The effort =appeearrrs to constitute and pastern Buropean -affairs ' spe-
indirect acknowledgement .of .past -cialists. have theorized that Bulgar
laxitz in .,dealing with-.international : ia's -success .-in eluding large-scale
criminal circles exposure of its illicit dealings at
Revelations of Bulgarian wrong- - Tome and abroad lulled it into a
doing have 'been spurred primarily ; false sense of .security:
by attempts.to shed light.on the :in- .
.quay into the -attempt''to ?4l -Pope ,
John `Paul ? Ii ` Bulgaria's -role as -.a
clearinghouse for Warsaw Pact
weapons. sales to friendly :countries
and to -less ideologically .compatible
customers has received scrutiny that
the Bulgarian authorities 'found un-.
welcome.
.For instance, the international
media in. the past year has given
prominence to charges by govern-
ment officials and court investigators
in Italy -and Turkey that Bulgarians
were involved in narcotics and_arms
smuggling partly. aimed :at-destabil-
izing the two NATO countries This
pattern of politically motivated
.wrongdoing suggests that Bulgaria
may have been willing to attempt
the more dramatic crime of trying to
silence the pontiff because of his
support for the banned Solidarity
union in his native Poland. .
A desire to earn hard currency,
however, evidently rivaled political
goals in Bulgaria's illicit activities.
Danish authorities have uncovered
Bulgarian involvement in a smuggl-
. ing ring funneling arms through
'South Africa to guerrillas battling
the left-wing government of Angola.
Yet as long ago as 1972, columnist
..Jack Anderson disclosed the'exis-
tenceof a'Central Intelligence Agen-:
cy report alleging Bulgaria's Impor-
'tance as a "new center directing
arms : and drug trafficking between
Western Europe and the Near East"
Anderson said Bulgaria was a
"safe haven' for putting together
major narcotics smuggling deals, that
Bulgarian trucks were widely used
for the trade and that even if caught
smugglers were -often let off with'a
light fine and their merchandise was,
returned.
The attempt on the pope's life-
linked with other investigations in '
Italy-in the past -year has focused
the media's spotlight on charges of
.Bulgaria's unsavory roles in other
fields. ' An Italian magistrate ; has
charged three Road Bulgarian
government employes with complic-
ity in the shooting. .
. Suddenly dredged up from the
past was the 1978 assassination in
London of Bulgarian dissident
Georgi Markov, who died after hav-
ing been pricked by an umbrella..
equipped with a pinhead-sized plat
inum pellet containing a poison
called ricin. Western intelligence
sources say that the-Bulgarian secret
service planned the killing.
Also receiving .prominence were
revelations from Turkish documents
-indicating -that Bulgaria sold arms to
both leftwing and right-wing terror-
ist factions'-:in Turkey before the mil
itary, takeover there in -1980.
One well-documented case in 1977
invohved a ship -named Wasoula that
Turkish. customs. authorities stopped
in Turkish -waters carrying 495 -gre-
nade =launchers -and. 10,000 rounds of
munition that had been-loaded in
the Bulgarian Bladc.Sea port of Bur-
li
In Lebanon in 1974 ar-d1975, just
before the civil war, Bulgaria sold
several :ahploads of arms to right-
wing Christian militias until the
local Communist - ;Party protested
that the. weapons would . be used
against. its members and their left-
wing and Palestinian allies.
Last . winter .Danish -.authorities
uncovered a vast traffic that had
been going on for years =involving
Bulgarian arms .sales to.Armscorp,
the' South African state arms firm.
Bulgaria, they said, sold shiploads of
Soviet Bloc weapons to South Africa,
which passed them. on to antigovern-
ment rebels in Angola.
The investigations established
that not only were Danish compa
.vies defying a United Nations ban:I
on : arms sales to -South Africa, but
also that Bulgaria was providing
,weapons for use against 'the Angolan
government. Thousands of Cuban
troops have been there for years as
symbols of the Soviet Bloc's concern for that government's survival.
. -The Sunday "Times ' of London
alleged that the deal was arranged 'in
Vienna by Ivan Slavkov, the head of
the ..Bulgarian Olympic Committee,
who once was married to the -late
daughter of Bulgarian Communist
leader Todor Zhivkov.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120034-3