In February 2018 assassins murdered Bulgarian couple Angelo Dimov and Nessie Peeva in their home at around 11 am in the Cape Town suburb of Bergvliet. It was not a house burglary gone wrong, it was a hit ordered by a British cocaine dealer who felt he was 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 cloning thousands of credit cards raking in millions of rand to drug dealing. Their murders remain unsolved but a burglary, a kidnapping, and a pile of diamonds give clues as to what may have led to their demise. The British man who is allegedly connected to their murder is also allegedly a major cocaine dealer and he was playing the same game as the Bulgarian mafia and their fixer Asen Ivanov. This week in Cape of Cocaine we reveal for the first time details about Dimov and Peeva’s murders and we delve into lives of the men who helped Ivanov become a major cocaine trafficker. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE

It’s February 2014 and Hawks Warrant Officer Johan Combrinck has received a tip-off through Interpol that Bulgarian men were busy constructing a large drug lab in a mansion in the Cape Town suburb of Durbanville. On the evening of 24 February Combrinck parked his car opposite the house and conducted a steak-out. The smell of sulphur was in the air, a sign to Combrinck that chemicals used for processing drugs were nearby. In the house Combrinck could see movement. And then a man wearing a hazmat suite and gas mask appears in sight. It’s the same equipment which 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 Asen Ivanov. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE

Out there with the legendary Flying Dutchman is a fleet of 'ghost ships' trafficking cocaine from South America to destinations around the globe. 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 the South African West Coast. She is now missing after TimesLIVE Investigations journalist Aron Hyman spoke about her involvement in drug trafficking on Bulgarian national television.  Following the arrests of Asen Ivanov and his Bulgarian associates for possession of a tonne of cocaine on 1 March last year police managed to confiscate three ships belonging to the syndicate. It's believed others are still out in the ocean possibly still trafficking cocaine around the world.  Episode two of Cape of Cocaine reveals how a fleet of ships trafficked drugs between South America to South Africa and eventually off to Australia on an industrial scale.  Sunday Times · TimesLIVE

On March 1 2021 the Windward, a Bulgarian mafia cocaine ship, was three days behind schedule docking at Saldanha Bay harbour on SA’s west coast. Bulgarian cocaine fleet manager Asen Ivanov and his Bulgarian associates were waiting, probably worried their Myanmar crew had become lost in thick fog or rough seas.  Unbeknown to him, he had much bigger problems because watching the mafia’s every move was Lt-Col Johan Smit and members of the Western Cape police’s narcotics unit. When the drug dealers approached the ship, the moment the police officers had been planning for months arrived. They were on the cusp of one of the biggest drug busts in SA history and inadvertently exposing a large secret crime organisation. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE

One of the biggest cocaine busts in South Africa’s 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 the drug to this country's shores. Cape of Cocaine is a mini podcast series unpacking the group's operations and its dealings in South Africa. It's a tale of drugs, ghost ships, corruption and assassinations. Join me, Orrin Singh, every Monday from November 14 as I delve into the inner workings of the Bulgarian Mafia’s operations on our shores, talking to journalists, investigators, partygoers and gangsters, among others.. Cape of Cocaine is brought to you by Boots on the Ground, a TimesLIVE and Arena Holdings production. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE