A total of 30 Bulgarians had been arrested on charges of people trafficking, Interior Minister Roumen Petkov and Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev announced in Plovdiv on May 29.

The two officials took part in the regular convention of regional prosecutors, heads of regional police directorates, the Plovdiv Investigative Service and the Plovdiv Border Police.

The arrests were part of a joint operation by Bulgarian and Italian services on Bulgarian territory against an international criminal group operating in Bulgaria and Italy. The criminal group had been operating for more than a year before its members' arrests.

The actions of Bulgarian police were co-ordinated with Italy's top anti-mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso, who is head of Italy's anti-mafia operations. This co-ordination was a result of Velchev's and Petkov's recent visit to Rome where Grasso asked for their assistance in the fight against people trafficking.

The arrested Bulgarians will be extradited to Italy. This has become possible thanks to the latest amendments to the Bulgarian constitution providing for the extradition of Bulgarian nationals to other countries in which they had committed crimes, Velchev said. Petkov described the operation as the largest conducted in this country jointly with partner services.

Of the 30 persons arrested, 28 were taken on the territory of the Pleven Regional Directorate of the Interior, and one each in Sofia and Plovdiv.

It had been established that two of the wanted persons had left the country and a search was still on for seven more, Petkov said. Petkov said that the main charges were people trafficking, mostly trafficking of women for sexual exploitation.

The masterminds of the criminal group are from Bulgaria and the group's criminal activities were based in the Italian city of Trieste. The arrests are the result of a year of investigation by Italian services.