Police officers from the State Agency for National Security (SANS) searched the offices of National Customs Agency Director General Petya Bankova and Deputy Director Lyudmil Marinov, confiscating documents and other items. After the search, Petya Bankova was taken to the anti-corruption agency for questioning.

Petya Bankova was appointed to the post on 20 February this year by outgoing Finance Minister Assen Vassilev. Before that she was deputy chair of the State Agency for National Security, and before that she worked for the Agency for many years.

The SANS operation is connected with intercepting smuggling rings. Bankova told reporters she did not tolerate and was doing her best to combat smuggling. “I want to stop smuggling which is affecting the entire country adversely right now,” Petya Bankova said, and added she was a “a victim of the anti-corruption agency”. In her words while she was working at SANS she was not on good terms with SANS chair Plamen Tonchev and that was the reason why she left the agency.