SOFIA, Bulgaria, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Bulgarian membership in NATO and the European Union appears to have given the country's gangsters richer rewards, The New York Times reports.
Criminal gangs appear to be heavily involved in politics, the newspaper said. After U.S. President George Bush nicknamed Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev "Mr. Clean" last year, the mayor of Sofia produced a 5-minute video that showed Stanishev with Mario Nikolov, one of the partners in the Stoykov-Nikolov group, which reputedly mixes legitimate business with crime.
The European Union held up $670 million in aid this summer because of the corruption.
Atanas Atanasov, a former head of counterintelligence who is now in parliament, has been the recipient of many leaks on corruption.
"Other countries have the mafia," he told the Times. "In Bulgaria, the mafia has the country."
While some politicians like Stanishev get political contributions from alleged gangsters, others have been mob targets. Last year, a mayor in a resort town and the city council head in the port of Nesebur were assassinated.
