Dead men tell the tale in the leafy Sofia Central Cemetery, where families have erected Italian marble tombs with giant images of men

The roots of Bulgaria’s thriving organized crime date to the collapse of Communism in the early 1990s. The security forces imploded and thousands of secret agents and athletes, including wrestlers once supported and coddled by the state, were cast onto the street. During the United Nations embargo of warring Serbia in the 1990s, those groups seized smuggling opportunities and solidified their networks.
The wrestlers, in particular, developed private security forces and insurance companies that were little more than shakedown protection rackets.Over time, a hierarchy evolved, organized crime experts said. At the bottom were violent hit men for hire. Next were risk-taking entrepreneurs and shadowy businessmen with close ties to the government. Younger men took charge of the black markets while older men dealt with the political elites.Today, men nicknamed “thick necks” for their muscular appearance linger in neon-lit Sofia nightclubs like Sin City and Lipstick or keep watch over Mercedes jeeps and Audis outside. Sofia guidebooks offer tips: avoid restaurants that draw businessmen with four or more bodyguards.
Bodyguards halt public traffic when their bosses arrive at Sin City. Caution is essential. Over the last five years, Bulgaria has weathered machine gun assassinations and inventive daylight attacks. Hit men disguised themselves as drunks and Orthodox priests. In 2004, someone planted a bomb on top of an elevator in central Sofia that was activated by mobile telephone, killing a businessman and three bodyguards.The toll now tops more than 125 contract killings, according to a list compiled by the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, which does not include five people killed this year. Most of the killings are unsolved.Dead men tell the tale in the leafy Sofia Central Cemetery, where families have erected Italian marble tombs with giant images of men identified with nicknames like “The Doctor,” “Daffodil,” “The Russian” and “The Godfather.”