The Bulgarian delegation to the 77th General Assembly of Interpol in St. Petersburg, Russia, met with the organization's Secretary General Ronald K. Noble, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.

In the course of the talks Noble highly commended Bulgaria's contribution to the fight against international and cross-border crime, with a special stress on this country's participation in tracking down individuals involved in child pornography and pedofilia. Bulgaria has intercepted 3.5 per cent of all fugitives wanted by Interpol.

In view of its geographical location, Bulgaria has a particular contribution to Interpol projects against bioterrorism and organized crime and terrorist activity in the Middle east, Caucasus and Central Asia, the Interior Ministry added.

Noble remarked on the fact that in just the last year Bulgaria provided 130,809 file records for the Interpol database referring to stolen and lost Bulgarian ID documents. In conjunction with Interpol, the Interior Ministry has participated in 16 international police operations against the trafficking of humans, drugs, financial crimes and crimes on Internet (child pornography).

The more characteristic ones of these include Operation "Tuareg" together with the Italian law-enforcement authorities, Operation "Baltico" for tracking down 34 Estonian citizens charged with armed robbery of jewelery stores in Europe and Japan, as well as operations "Elvis" and "Meybach" concerning the detention and extradition of Bulgarian citizens charged by the Italian authorities with trafficking women with the objective of sexual exploitation.

Bulgaria's good practice in fighting international crime will be published on Interpol's open Website.

General Commissioner Pavlin Dimitrov thanked Noble for his active support of the Bulgarian police and particularly for his personal commitment at the funding of projects related to the technical equipment of Bulgarian border checkpoints as EU external border.

Source: BTA