Vasil Iliev ( bg, Васил Илиев; January 22, 1965 – April 25, 1995) was a

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

mobster, businessman and wrestler.

Background

Vasil Iliev was born in 1965 in

Kyustendil Kyustendil ( bg, Кюстендил ) is a town in the far west of Bulgaria, the capital of the Kyustendil Province, a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see. The town is situated in the southern part of the Kyustendil Valley, ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. He was a very successful wrestler, becoming a national champion and heading the country's wrestling federation.

Criminal career

After the end of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

, Iliev and a number of associates moved to Hungary, where they were engaged in some low-level criminal activities such as

burglaries Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder ...

and

car theft Motor vehicle theft (also known as a car theft and, in the United States, grand theft auto) is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle. Nationwide in the United States in 2020, there were 810,400 vehicles reported ...

. Eventually, he made a substantial amount of money and turned back to

where he set up VIS (standing for ''Vyarnost, Investitsii, Sigurnost''). The company's official business was in

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

and

security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social ...

, but this was really a front for criminal activity including

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

, selling stolen cars and

contract killings Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...

and so on. The company was declared illegal in 1994, but its activities continued under VIS-2, yet another front for Iliev's criminal empire. Iliev later made millions smuggling

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

into

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

during the UN-imposed

embargo Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they m ...

.Kalchev, Hristo. ''Neron the Wolf'', 1995 By this time, Iliev was arguably the most powerful crime boss in the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

Death

Vasil Iliev was murdered on April 25, 1995, in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

. Unidentified gunmen opened fire on his

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

as he left his favorite restaurant, creating a fake automobile accident to seal off the road. The incident was so high profile, that the Minister of the Interior arrived at the crime scene in minutes. Iliev's bodyguards, who were traveling in a separate car unarmed, were unharmed. The next boss of VIS was his brother Georgi Iliev. He was shot dead by a suspected

sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

in Sunny Beach,

, little more than 10 years after his brother.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iliev, Vasil 1964 births 1995 deaths Bulgarian male sport wrestlers Deaths by firearm in Bulgaria Male murder victims Murdered Bulgarian gangsters Murder in Sofia People murdered in Bulgaria 20th-century Bulgarian criminals People from Kyustendil Unsolved murders in Bulgaria Sportspeople from Kyustendil Province

Background

Criminal career

Death

See also

References