PODCAST SERIES | How the Bulgarian mafia established itself in SA

One of the biggest cocaine busts in South African history, on the misty shores of Saldanha Bay, lifted the lid on an international drug-smuggling ring led by the Bulgarian mafia. But the syndicate brought more than just drugs to this country's shores.

Listen to the trailer: 

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Cape of Cocaine is a mini podcast series unpacking the group's operations and dealings in South Africa. It's a tale of drugs, ghost ships, corruption and assassinations.

Watch lead investigative journalist Aron Hyman, describe the investigation: 

On March 1 2021 the Windward, a Bulgarian mafia cocaine ship, was three days behind schedule docking at Saldanha Bay harbour on South Africa's west coast.

Bulgarian cocaine fleet manager Asen Ivanov and his associates were waiting, probably worried their Myanmar crew was lost in thick fog or rough seas. 

Unbeknown to him, he had much bigger problems because watching the mafia’s every move were Lt-Col Johan Smit and members of the Western Cape police’s narcotics unit.

When the drug dealers approached the ship, the moment the officers had been planning for months arrived.

They were on the cusp of one of the biggest drug busts in South African history and inadvertently exposed a large, secret crime organisation.

EPISODE 1 | Listen to the story of the bust, here: 

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Out there with the legendary Flying Dutchman is a fleet of “ghost ships” trafficking cocaine from South America to destinations worldwide. They are invisible to satellites and tracking systems, and make lonely voyages undetected, sometimes across rough seas.

The Atlantic Warrior is one of them. She belongs to the Bulgarian mafia and trafficked cocaine from Brazil to Saldanha Bay off South Africa's west coast. She is now missing after TimesLIVE Investigations journalist Aron Hyman spoke about her involvement in drug trafficking on Bulgarian national television.

After the arrests of Ivanov and his Bulgarian associates for possession of a tonne of cocaine, police confiscated three ships belonging to the syndicate.

It's believed others are still on the ocean, possibly still trafficking cocaine. Episode two of Cape of Cocaine reveals how a fleet of ships trafficked drugs between South America and South Africa, and eventuallyto Australia on an industrial scale. 

EPISODE 2 | Learn about the ghost ships haunting SA's shores:

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It’s February 2014 and Hawks W/O Johan Combrinck has received a tip-off from Interpol that Bulgarian men are constructing a large drug lab in a mansion in Durbanville, Cape Town.

On the evening of February 24, Combrinck parks his car opposite the house and conducts a stakeout.

The smell of sulphur is in the air, a sign that chemicals used for processing drugs are nearby.

In the house Combrinck sees movement. Then a man wearing a hazmat suite and gas mask appears. It’s the same equipment Combrinck and his men use to protect themselves from hazardous chemicals when they destroy drug labs.

The next day Combrinck and his Hawks colleagues arrive at the house with a court order. They knock on the door.

The man who opens it introduces himself as Ivanov.

EPISODE 3 | Meet the Bulgarian frontman, Asen Ivanov: 

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At about 11am on February 2018 assassins murder Bulgarian couple Angelo Dimov and Nessie Peeva in their home in Bergvliet, Cape Town.

The hit was ordered by a British cocaine dealer who felt he had been double crossed.

There was more to Dimov and Peeva than their friends in the Cape Town southern suburbs knew.

Dimov was an alleged member of the Bulgarian mafia, a secretive criminal organisation which would go from successfully raking in millions of rand by cloning thousands of credit cards to drug dealing.

Their murders remain unsolved, but a burglary, kidnapping, and diamonds give clues as to what may have led to their demise.

EPISODE 4 | The murder of Angelo Dimov and Nessie Peeva

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The British man who is allegedly connected to their murder is also said to be a major cocaine dealer playing the same game as the Bulgarian mafia and their fixer Ivanov.

We reveal, for the first time, details about Dimov and Peeva’s murders, and delve into the lives of the men who helped Ivanov become a major cocaine trafficker.

TimesLIVE

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