Minister Stoyanov congratulated his colleagues and the director of the Plovdiv police

I congratulate my colleagues and the director of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Plovdiv for the work well done and the large-scale results achieved.

This was stated by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Kalin Stoyanov, during the short ceremony at the ministry. The employees of the “Economic Police” department of Plovdiv were honored at it, the Ministry of the Interior announced.

“I know some of the people in the team personally and I have had the opportunity to work with them on various cases. I know that they are still very active and carry out a serious volume of activity, in close cooperation with the services involved in crimes against intellectual property. The case is specific for us, as it is the first time we are seizing so much equipment and products with a trademark,” said Stoyanov. The minister recalled that crimes against intellectual property and counterfeit goods are among the priorities of the European Union in the fight against serious and organized crime. And Bulgaria, in particular GDBOP, was chosen as the leader, being charged with the task of coordinating the efforts of law enforcement authorities in the EU in the fight against this type of criminal activity.

A large foreign company thanked the Minister of the Interior, the director and employees of the Plovdiv Directorate for a successful operation in the field of intellectual property protection. Its head of anti-counterfeiting for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Frank Stamen, said that this case was exceptional and the results achieved impressive.

“We submitted the signal in Germany and it very quickly reached the Bulgarian authorities. The large-scale implementation took place in an extremely short period of time, only within a few months. In no other country has so far been seized such a large amount of equipment and materials, the object of our intellectual property,” shared Stamen. According to him, the actions of the Ministry of Interior officials show that Bulgaria is a reliable partner in the fight against organized crime.

“For the second time, within a year, we are awarding this exact team. This is another large-scale operation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-Plovdiv with exceptional results. We thank them for their work and for the good cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” he said in his speech Anetta Tajer, who participated in the investigation by the Japanese corporation.

The Ministry of the Interior recalls that on August 30, the “Economic Police” department received operational information about an illegal activity related to intellectual property – the export and sale of toner cartridges marked with signs similar to a Japanese brand, without the consent of the right holder. an operational team was formed following the report, and procedural and investigative actions were taken in a warehouse of a commercial company in the territory of Plovdiv’s “Severen” district. There, the investigators found over 22,400 toner cartridges of the brand in question – different in type and size, full and empty. Confiscated there are also 129 pallets with 85,330 blanks for cardboard packaging, as well as other physical evidence of the activity being carried out.

Pre-trial proceedings have been initiated in the case. The District Prosecutor’s Office has been notified, under whose leadership the work on documenting the case continues.