Europol: Stolen car parts worth millions of euro recovered from warehouse in Bulgaria
During a Europol-supported action day conducted by Bulgarian and German law enforcement in mid-October, officers recovered stolen car parts worth several millions of euro, European police co-operation agency Europol said on October 29.
Led by the Bulgarian police in a warehouse near Sofia, the raid was the result of an investigation initiated when a logistics company in Wallersdorf, Bavaria (Bayern) was broken into in June 2024.
On October 15, officers from Germany’s Landshut Criminal Investigation Department, a representative of the Landshut Public Prosecutor’s Office and a Europol specialist participated in the raid conducted by the Bulgarian authorities, where almost all of the stolen car parts were recovered.
The burglars had stolen large amounts of parts for vehicles produced by a German car manufacturer.
The perpetrators had loaded the parts on lorries using forklifts, before transporting them abroad.
German investigators had an initial breakthrough with the arrest and detention of two Romanian nationals following a series of break-ins in bakeries in Wallersdorf.
Over the course of the investigation conducted by the Landshut Criminal Investigation Department, evidence emerged that one of the suspects, with the help of one other accomplice, was involved in the break-in at the Wallersdorf logistics company.
The investigation also yielded concrete information on the whereabouts of the stolen vehicle parts in Bulgaria, upon which the Landshut investigators contacted Europol.
(Photo: Europol)
