Agents Under Cover: Media Coverage of the Project Presentation

The latest study of RiskMonitor Foundation, “Special Methods for the Combat of Organized Crime – Agents Under Cover”, was presented in the National Assembly on 22 November, 2011. The report and its conclusions drew the interest of the media and the responsible public institutions. A study of this scale and on this topic has been conducted for the first time, presenting a detailed and systematic analysis of the operations of the anti-organized crime units in Bulgaria. So far, this topic has been discussed more in the perspective of public scandals and insinuations, rather than from a matter-of-fact viewpoint. The media cite data from the study regarding the number of agents under cover included in police operations so far; the statistics is provided by Sofia City Court, according to which there are 19 such cases for 2019 and 47 for 2010. The study also shows that there is a preference of the investigative services to apply special investigation devices (SID) rather than agents. SIDs are seen as less resource consuming and less risky to implement. The Directorate General “Combating Organized Crime” and the State Agency for National Security have used agents under cover mostly in operations for human trafficking, drug trafficking and debit/credit card fraud. One of the greatest successes – unexpectedly – is the use of agents in preventing the disposal of tones of toxic material on the territory of the country.

The practice of using agents under cover is something new for Bulgaria, introduced only recently in 2006, as part of the requirements for the country’s EU accession. A wider application of this method has to be carefully considered, though, specifically in assessing the risks for the persons who will assume that dangerous task.