54
74
The Drug Market in Bulgaria
long-term users of heroin have been switching to cocaine. For a country like
Bulgaria such a shift would hardly work, due to the very high price of cocaine.
Therefore, amphetamines become a natural, cheap surrogate. The heroin crisis in
2002–2004 forced many heroin networks to look for a replacement drug. A survey
among long-term heroin addicts, made it clear that in summer of 2003 already
there was a sweeping wave of amphetamine use. In a subsequent survey Sofia
and Bourgas seem to be the cities worst affected by the outbreak, with 40 %
and 60 % of heroin addicts respectively having used amphetamines in the pre-
ceding month.
112
Unit-Doses, Prices and Available Synthetic Drugs
Dosage with amphetamines is similar to heroin and prices match the amount in
a unit. In Sofia, Varna, Bourgas and the environs there are various unit doses,
such as fivers, tens, fifteens, twenties costing five, ten, fifteen, and twenty levs
respectively.
113
Like heroin, they are dosaged with the help of blister packs. For
a fiver, the amphetamine powder is placed into the cavity of a Vitamin C blister
card. For the larger doses, aspirin and lozenge blister strips are used. Thus, sellers
do not need to weigh the dose with electronic scales. The ready doses are then
packed in plastic or paper sachets. The preferred dose differs from area to area
depending on the purchasing abilities of the population. Dealers continue to sell
amphetamine pills as well. Police records of seized amphetamines indicate that
while early in the decade this was the dominant form in which retail amphet-
amines came, currently only one tenth of all domestic market sales is occupied
by pills, while the rest is amphetamine sulphate.
114
The linkages between production and distribution are more apparent with
amphetamine in pills. Police data about pills seized in mid-delivery, as well as
interviews during the research confirm that the old captagon pills are only pro-
duced for export destinations accustomed to the product. The domestic market,
on the other hand, is saturated with pills in a great variety of colors, shapes and
imprints in order to stimulate demand in users who are expected to associate
the brand with certain quality. Producers are obviously trying to copy the design
of the ecstasy pills consumed in Western Europe, using the same logos–stars,
smileys, Mitsubishi’s, dollars, Armani’s, Mickey Mouse’s, etc. There are dealer net-
works and user circles who stick to single a brand. Often, however, new models
are promoted with copy claims, such as ”Be a star”, ”Stretch yourself like Pinko”
and the like. In the larger local markets dealers are trying to create perceptions
that certain pill types produce particular effects. The price range of pills is rather
broad, starting from 2–3 levs (Plovdiv, the winter of 2006) up to 30 levs (Varna,
the summer of 2007). Most commonly, though, pills cost 10–15 levs. Prices tend
to be lower if bought earlier on in the selling of the batch or from a trusted
connection. Often, users buy them in bulk to distribute in among friends. If one
purchases 100–200 pills in total, the price can go down to 1.50–2 levs per pill.
112 See: Bezlov, T., Barendrech, K., Injection Drug Users in Bulgaria – Profiles and Risks, Initiative for
Injection Drug Users in Bulgaria – Profiles and Risks, Initiative for
Injection Drug Users in Bulgaria – Profiles and Risks
Health Foundation, Sofia, 2004.
113 Elsewhere in the country where incomes are lower a dose can sell down to 3 levs.
114 However, amphetamine pills are usually sold to better-off users whom the police capture much
more rarely.
58
Organized Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends
75
The supply of pills with particular shapes and logos depends on the availability
of well-equipped, fast-working workshops ready to manufacture on demand.
Some dealers claim that such units are often operating within cities. The ”cooks”,
as they are sometimes called, also have the task to dilute the amphetamines, a
process similar heroin dilution. One of the methods involves the adding of any
substance that could mix with the amphetamine–from teeth cleaning powder to
plaster of Paris. Sometimes, medical substances are added, such as caffeine or
vitamins. There are also more sophisticated ways of cooking
115
tailored to pro-
duce specific effects on users. For instance, amphetamines are mixed with bogus
Viagra
116
and advertised as a brand new recreational drug which is a sexual
stimulant, whereas classic pills only enhance dancing and aural experiences. It
compensates for amphetamine side effects such as erectile dysfunction, and more
than that, amplifies sexual perceptions, enhances the libido and improves sexual
performance. Master cooking can also seek to produce pills with hallucinogenic
effects by adding ephedrine or in some cases even LSD. Apart from the various
pills, the police have occasionally seized related synthetic drugs in the form of
sticky mass known as ”plasticine” which, after testing, has been proven to contain
ephedrine and amphetamines. In addition to the widely used technologies for
amphetamine production, a methamphetamine commonly referred to as ”piko”
is also produced in Bulgaria. Little is known about this production, but it is re-
portedly identical to the popular Czech drug Pervitin. The story circulated in the
criminal world suggests that the technology was imported to Bulgaria by pimps
from the town of Sliven long involved in prostitution rings in Central Europe.
Popular perceptions in Bulgaria undoubtedly define ecstasy as the top designer
drug. Police records on seized drugs
117
testify that МDMA is rarely used as the
active ingredient. Population surveys
118
show, however, that over half of the re-
spondents reporting to have used synthetic drugs, claim that they use or have
tried ecstasy. Inexperienced users seem to make a very rough distinction, relating
content to the form in which drugs come; thus, all pills are ecstasy, and any
powder is amphetamine. Another false distinction is between capsules and pills,
where the former, especially if high-priced are regarded as the real thing. The
popular belief is that ”the expensive real ecstasy pills from Holland” are available
for 20–30 levs, although if lucky, one can get them at 10 levs. Chemical analyses
usually find ephedrine and amphetamines in pills that even long-term users claim
to be authentic ecstasy. Probably, some ecstasy is imported irregularly, but police
seizures so far, even of pills containing MDMA (invariably in minimum quantity
and of poor quality), have always proven to be of local origin. It could also be
surmised that like cocaine, upmarket pills are only affordable to foreign tourists
or domestic upper middle-class members, who are generally not targeted (or are
intentionally avoided) by the police.
115 ”Cooking” is common jargon in many cities which refers to the preparation of more sophisticated
synthetic drugs by dealers and users.
116 It is thought that various generic drugs for treating erectile dysfunction, such as sildenafil (most
popular under the brand name Viagra), vardenafil (Levitra) and tadalafil (Cialis) are imported from
Asia for the purpose.
117 Unfortunately, so far no independent evaluation has been made of the psychoactive substances
sold in Bulgaria.
118 Data from the Vitosha Research representative surveys regularly conducted from 2002 to 2007.
49
76
The Drug Market in Bulgaria
Interviewed dealers and former police officers now running amphetamine busi-
nesses believe that there have been numerous attempts to manufacture ecstasy
in Bulgaria. Some report this to have happened and several batches of standard
quality drugs to have been produced in Southern Bulgaria. These units are again
supposedly run by Bulgarian procurers operating in Holland and Belgium, who
have imported the technology and established channels for smuggling in the
right precursors. Certain police officials, though, claim it is much more likely
that original Dutch ecstasy is occasionally imported than produced in domestic
facilities.
Distribution
As described in the production section, there are two distinct ways to deal
synthetic drugs, roughly definable as ”professional” and ”amateur”. The first
type of dealing is done through the upmarket night venues, while the second is
related to the alternative/underground scene. In the first case the most popular
entertainment places in the largest towns are either set-up, or bought out by
former racket protection businesses. Dancing clubs and discos are supplied with
Bulgarian-made amphetamines, which are considered a booster to customers’ fun.
Owners allow in or support dealer networks to enhance the buzz of the place.
119
In the late 1990s, it was common practice for bartenders and guards to inform
clients about whom to call to get the stuff and they would receive a commission
for each customer. Dealers, too, would sell openly, arrive in taxies, deliver at the
entrance and get paid inside the joint without disturbance.
The more amateur distribution strand emerged earlier. The typical setting would
be a club at an industrial hall selling cheap drinks, a hangout for pot smokers,
but also for techno music fiends for whom designer drugs came were an emblem.
Initially, such sites were supplied with ecstasy and (meth)amphetamines from
Central and Western Europe, which were soon displaced by the cheap domestic
variety to match customers’ low solvency. Stuff was mainly marketed by music
event organizers and DJs. Some of the interviewed in-crowd members claimed
it was at that time local (and Balkan) crime enterprises got linked to amateur
friend-to-friend dealing networks. This how the underground music scene gained
easy access to inferior, but inexpensive locally produced synthetic drugs.
With the fast spawning of nightclubs, the boom of electronic dance culture, and
the rising welfare of the general population after 2001 synthetic drug distribution
entered the maturity stage. The new mainstream discotheques, bars and clubs
targeted customer groups of specific lifestyles and incomes. The underground
scene strove to satisfy newly sprung music tastes through concerts and raves,
although with less variety than the dance music industry. Both entertainment
scenes therefore provided a home-grown version of house parties. The friendly
synthetic drug networks of the underground variety, however, were taken over
by organized crime quite early in the decade, as it was later to happen on the
marijuana market. Although DJs at techno parties and rave organizers continued
119 In the words of an interviewed career bartender involved in drug dealing, describing that period,
”a place looks ‘dead’, in decline, if you don’t see people enjoying themselves, jumping around
and dancing for hours. Often, when a venue stopped being fancy and was half-empty, the inces-
sant dancing of a few stoned youth would change the impression.”
49
Organized Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends
77
to gain most of their income through the sales of designer drugs, they had be-
come inferior to crime bosses.
120
Synthetic drug distribution exploited most of the schemes known from the heroin
and cannabis markets. All levels of the heroin hierarchy are employed. Method-
wise, direct and networked phone sales, couriers and door-to-door deliveries are
also present.
Synthetic drugs were also retailed within the cannabis distribution networks. As
mentioned before, when organized crime took possession of soft drug networks,
nearly half of all cannabis pushers also sold amphetamines both in the street (via
phone orders) and around their circles of friends (the quasi open market).
Nevertheless, synthetic drug distribution has its own specifics that distinguish it
from both the heroin and the cannabis networks. They center on the night habits
and musical tastes of users.
Synthetic drug use is closely dependent on the type of nightlife settings where
the drugs are sold and inside which they are consumed. In that respect the
larger Bulgarian cities display several similarities to the 1990s upsurge of designer
drug use in Spain.
121
As in Spanish cities, there are several types of urban dealing
venues for synthetic drugs. Users also gravitate around certain types of places.
Within a city there are four rough zones. One is the inner city with the highest
concentration of night clubs, discotheques, bars and restaurants. Another zone
comprises places beyond the downtown area, at attractive location or outer resi-
dential estates. The third zone is located at the fringes of the city (ghettoized
neighborhoods). They are marginal and frequented by local residents. A separate
fourth zone is formed in student villages which are as densely packed with en-
tertainment places as city centers. There is an altogether different waterfront zone
in coastal cities, where joints and crowds are of the highest density.
Apart from cityscape considerations, designer drug (and to a lesser extent co-
caine) distribution in the last couple of years at entertainment venues, it also
depends on the type of venues. Roughly, they are divided into: strictly dancing
places, drinking places with a dance floor, and drinking and eating places. The
last type is rarely a retail spot, as when a person consumes synthetic drugs, their
appetite for food subsides. Further types would be: bars, small clubs, discos and
mega-discotheques.
Synthetic drugs use is not only dependent on the setting, but also on temporal
factors. Nighttime, as is common in South Europe, has three stages–pre-party,
party and after-party. Cities are at their most bustling early in the evening. Be-
tween 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. people bunch at private homes or public establish-
ments and mostly drink alcohol or smoke marijuana if they go to an underground
hangout. The second stage kicks off round midnight to 1 a.m.–the crowds go
to clubs and discos that hold all-night parties. In recent years after-parties are
120 Thus, any of them who broke the rules would be punished in the same way as deviant dealers are.
121 See: Synthetic Drugs Trafficking in Three European Cities: Major Trends and Involvement of Organized
Crime, Gruppo Abele, in cooperation with TNI – IECAH and with the support of UNICRI,
2003.
56
78
The Drug Market in Bulgaria
increasingly in vogue, echoing nightlife trends in Western Europe. After-hour
places are frequented after most discos are closed–at about 4.30 to 6 a.m. and
sometimes go on until noon.
Synthetic drugs are used most sparingly in early evening, only by heavy users.
By the time of the after-party 50-60% of those present have consumed some.
The drugs are usually bought before one enters the venue, but a large part of
users take them inside. They usually make a phone order and deliveries peak in
between the pre-party and the party proper.
In the last couple of years a new trend has emerged–together with entertainment
spots, designer drugs are increasingly used in private homes. A large number of
users choose this setting due to the growing prices at public places and as an
alternative to alcohol consumption. In cities smaller than the metropolitan Sofia
and Varna, especially in university towns, users stick to home environments and
the cheap amphetamines sold locally, thus saving money from night entertain-
ment in town. It is precisely the smaller town context that explains the exponen-
tial growth in synthetic drugs use.
122
New ways to treat a friend have emerged
in Bulgarian youth culture. It is now common to offer a girl a ”sweetmeat” or a
”line” instead of buying her a drink. A young professional (for instance, an interior
designer) would not buy his buddies the usual case of beer, but opt for 2 grams
of amphetamine instead.
Drugs are sold in public (usually close to drinking or dancing places and con-
cert venues, and much more rarely inside them) by the so-called ”semi-closed
networks”. Whether at an underground music event or at upmarket night spots,
drugs are not normally sold to strangers. Even if the street dealer does not know
the client’s name or if it is another dealer’s client, he would only sell the drug to
a ”face” he has met elsewhere ”hanging out with the right people”. Such peculiar
face control
123
is indispensable for street dealers of synthetic drugs and cocaine.
If observed more closely, this safety strategy can be described in detail as fol-
lows: the number of users of a regular night joint
124
with 200–300 visitors on a
122 Interviewees working in bars, clubs and other nightlife venues claim that they make more money
by letting in synthetic drug dealers than by selling alcohol.
123 The practice of face control already commonly used in Western European nightlife was first intro-
duced during security checks at night clubs. The crime world was quick to adopt this technique
to get into guarded venues, but also for their own purposes. It has become an essential survival
technique for pimps, drug dealers and criminal hit squads.
124 The role of joint owners is key to describing drug dealing networks covering night spots. It is
common knowledge that many of the clubs in large cities are still owned by members of the
former racketeer groups. Some owners deliberately allow the use of synthetic drugs inside the
place, so that it looks livelier with drugged youngsters bouncing about. The better part of joints,
though, have special measures installed to keep drugs out. As this is a highly competitive busi-
ness, in recent years owners and managers of night clubs have been extremely cautious in three
areas–legal employment contracts for all of their staff, selling licensed alcohol, and the preven-
tion of drug-related incidents (including drugs sneaked in by competitors). Breaking any of these
three rules could lead to the closure of the joint, which may mean dropping out of business
permanently. To avoid problems, owners pay the police to warn them about coming checks of
their premises. Interviewed high police officials claimed that in recent years drugs have rarely
been found in searches of night spots. In the words of one interviewee, ”In the past, when we
did sudden checks, the floors of the clubs would turn white from the pills and sachets thrown
53
Organized Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends
79
weekend night, is roughly 50–70 persons. In this case, five or six dealers service
three to four joints and know all their regular customers.
125
Larger venues often
accommodate over 1,000 people at a time and 3,000 clients drop in throughout
the night. The number of users in such places is much bigger, yet dealers would
not venture selling to strangers. Any first-time buyer needs to find an intermediary
known to the dealer. In case they approach the dealer independently, they need
to have frequented the place often enough for the dealer to have remembered
their face.
Alternatively, dealers sell only to a small number of privileged clients. Interviews
with such clients suggested that the principle of between-friends distribution still
holds. More often than not, buyers are prone to purchasing from friends, from
whom they would also take larger quantities. This approach enhances clients’
feeling of safety from police traps, and their confidence that the stuff bought
is of good quality (which is especially important having in mind, the quality of
most drugs in Bulgaria) and at a discount price. Thus, the person who has a
dealer friend would collect the orders of the people he hangs out with for the
dealer to perform,
126
winning a bulk purchase discount and being certain to buy
decent quality. This is how the friendly networks reduce the risk for dealers. The
latter are normally from the same social group as their customers–insiders, such
as secondary school and university students drawn into the drug business in vari-
ous ways, but retaining the lifestyle of their community. They work professionally,
although they may also study or have a legal job. They are attached to the area
boss (supervisor) and may have trouble quitting. The best case scenario for them
is to be allowed to walk out of business after finding a replacement to succeed
them.
The third approach resembles the user-seller segment of heroin distribution. These
are young heavy users that have special appointment phones. Each passes the
synthetic drugs to a large number of friends and acquaintances. They are usually
on standby for quality, quantity and price-wise special offers of dealers. In con-
trast to the heroin distribution model, though, amphetamine users are not depen-
dent on a single dealer, but can get supplies from up to ten to fifteen different
sources. Some specialize in a particular substance, while others sell everything. If
one is to make a visual representation of these networks, it will resemble a thick
web made up of dozens of dealers, selling down to hundreds of heavy users,
who in their turn supply three or four circles of friends. Quite probably, it is the
retailers at this level that later become dealers. At some point they may meet a
wholesaler ready to offer them a significant quantity discount. In such cases, the
very low prices can bring huge profits.
out of customers’ pockets. Now we only find a sachet or two on rare occasions.” It is not clear
what the links are between bar and club guards and street dealers. Guards claim that all such
deals are done outside the joints. Some bartenders claim that the staff working at those places
makes bigger profits from clients who have asked about a drug dealer or a hooker than from
the alcohol they sell.
125 The total number of faces a dealer has to remember then is no more than 280 (assuming that
they tend for four joints each with 70 amphetamine users).
126 Privileged clients are surveyed in advance about the volume their circle of friends is likely to
order.
55
80
The Drug Market in Bulgaria
In this context, the role of the wholesalers ought to be discussed. As organized
crime groups run the local production of amphetamines, it can be assumed
that they also control wholesaling. Dealers and police officers, however, report
that in recent years shano (free players) have been extremely common. Possibly,
shano (free players) have been extremely common. Possibly,
shano
wholesalers manage to make independent orders to manufacturers, overstepping
the area principles of organized crime control. The police have caught several
wholesalers so far, who are not subservient to any of the bosses that have carved
the bigger cities between themselves. These people act like traveling salesmen,
delivering amphetamines to a number of criminal leaders in various cities. Strik-
ingly, they run their business in a market oriented way, driven by local demand
and competing with wholesalers fully subordinate to organized crime structures.
This leads to two suggestions: either some free enterprise is granted to producers
to sell to clients of their choice, or regional bosses try to push the extra quanti-
ties not exported to the Middle East to domestic areas in someone else’s control.
The shano are thus able to supply friendly networks, selling by the familiar faces
shano are thus able to supply friendly networks, selling by the familiar faces
shano
model. This is obviously the approach that keeps such a person at a safe distance
from both the police and local drug cartels. As a result, in the last couple of years
these semi-closed networks have grown at a fast pace in middle-sized towns.
Another factor that helps phone-sales within friend communities is that the user-
sellers who operate them are mostly middle-class. Both crime leaders and the
police prefer to avoid pressure or violence against them.
Some fragmentary data suggest that those networks of free black market entrepre-
neurs order the quantities they need to various amphetamine producing facilities
across the country. It is odd that wholesalers do not buy better-quality synthetic
drugs from Central and Western Europe, as do their counterparts in Spain and
Italy.
127
Perhaps the basic reason is the clear stratification by user income of the
market of stimulant drugs. Cheap amphetamines are massively consumed by
poorer individuals, whereas the well-off opt straight for cocaine. It can be fore-
casted that with Bulgaria’s accession to the EU, distribution networks for imported
designer drugs, ecstasy in particular, will emerge, especially taking into account
the plummeting prices of this group of controlled substances.
2.2.4. The Cocaine Market
Bulgaria’s domestic consumption of cocaine is much below Western European
levels, yet it forms a market in its own right that enjoys special attention from
both distributors and users. A number of surveys suggest that cocaine (dubbed
”white stuff”) is considered an elitist drug of the highest possible quality, cov-
eted by most users, but so high-priced that it is affordable only to a select few.
However, in the last five years there has been a clear-cut trend of growing use.
The national population surveys
128
have captured a rapid increase in the share
127 See: Synthetic Drugs Trafficking in Three European Cities: Major Trends and Involvement of Organised
Crime, Gruppo Abele, in cooperation with TNI – IECAH and with the support of UNICRI,
2003.
128 Since 2002 the Center for the Study of Democracy and Vitosha Research have performed six
annual victimization surveys containing a significant bloc of questions on the use of the most
widespread psychoactive substances.
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