Wanted Bulgarian organised crime figure Krasimir Kamenov was gunned down in his home in the upmarket suburb of Constantia, Cape Town, on Thursday morning alongside his wife, bodyguard and their nanny.
The incident, believed to be a hit relating to Kamenov’s involvement in the Bulgarian underworld, took place at about 8.20am on Thursday morning while Cape Town was in the midst of heavy downpours.
Neighbours told TimesLIVE Premium no-one in the neighbourhood heard any commotion despite the fact that the front gate was rammed open by a vehicle.
TimesLIVE understands that the deceased were all bound with handcuffs behind their backs, apart from Kamenov, who was loosely cable-tied and shot at point-blank range while lying on the floor. The assassins used a 9mm firearm thought to have been fitted with a silencer.
Western Cape police spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut said crime scene experts were still combing the scene of the murders.
“At around 08:20 the bodies of two females and two males estimated to be aged between 40 and 50 were discovered with gunshot wounds. The victims are believed to be of Bulgarian descent,” said Traut.
“Police were summoned to the crime scene after the discovery was made. The motive for the multiple murders is yet to be determined, with detectives hard at work in search of clues. Serious and violent crime detectives have initiated an investigation into the murders,” he said.
Kamenov was recently added to an Interpol Red Notice that stated he was wanted for murder and extortion.
In South Africa, TimesLIVE sources said he was believed to be a prominent member of a large Bulgarian organised crime group specialising in credit card fraud and narcotics trafficking.
The organisation had reportedly managed to keep a low profile despite being in the crosshairs of the now-disbanded Scorpions in the 2000s and more recently the Hawks. Despite numerous arrests over the years, the key figures of the organisation have remained elusive.
Kamenov was believed to be one such figure with Bulgarians linked to various credit card fraud activities, being picked up from Cape Town International Airport by his drivers and brought to properties he owned.
Thursday's murders bear a striking resemblance to the murder of the Kamenovs’ “friends” and fellow Bulgarian Angelo Dimov and Nessie Peeva, who were killed in a similar style attack in their home in Bergvliet in 2018. This was just a few kilometres from where Kamenov lived.
Dimov, who was also allegedly involved in narcotics trafficking, was arrested in 2013 for credit card fraud and was in the midst of trial in the Bellville Commercial Crimes Court with Serbian national Dejan Krstic.
TimesLIVE Investigations interviewed Kamenov and his wife Gergana Kamenov in October last year for the investigative podcast series Cape of Cocaine and questioned Kamenov about his links to Dimov.
When Dimov was arrested in 2013 police seized a laptop which contained among other things a copy of Kamenov’s ID.
He claimed Dimov was helping him with his ID “to do some legal things”.
“He helped me with red tape here, but after that I used some other guy because he’s not competent to do this,” he said.
Kamenov claimed in the interview that Dimov was involved in drug trafficking and that he was of a “different class” than Dimov.
“What kind of work can I have with this guy? We’re not comparable. These guys are not on my level financially to deal with me on these things. What am I going to get from that? I’m well-off compared with these guys, all of them,” he said.
“Most of them are criminals. Let’s be honest, most them are criminals,” he said referring to Dimov and his associates.
“These guys are involved in credit cards and narcotics, nothing else. Bulgarians are not big in narcotics, they can only be servants to somebody else. There is a South African behind this,” he said at the time.
Kamenov’s wife, Lubomira, told TimesLIVE that she and Nessie had the same gynaecologist and that their children were born only a few months apart.
They also took the Dimov’s daughter into their care after the 2018 murders.
No one has been arrested for the 2018 murders yet.
