Police has arrested five men in a Audi A8 sedan on Trakiya highway, whom media speculation linked to the kidnapping of businessman Kiro Kirov. On April 14 2009, Kirov (70), was released in good health after 17 days in captivity. Allegedly, his son paid a 620 000 euro ransom.

On April 22, the Interior Ministry said that the highway patrol spotted five people apparently wearing masks and pulled them over for a check. After reinforcement arrived, the police officer decided to search the vehicle, which the five tried to resist.

After some resistance, the search in the trunk found masks and various weapons. All five men had criminal records and were detained for the legal period of 24 hours, the statement on the ministry's website said.

Interior Minister Mihail Mikov has declined to comment on whether the five were linked to the probe, claiming that it could harm the investigation. Media speculation, however, said that one of the detainees had been spotted driving the BMW vehicle that was allegedly used in Kirov's kidnapping.

It was with a 4x4 that kidnappers used to allegedly picked up the ransom money from Trakiya highway left there by Kirov's son. A vehicle of this type was later found burned down.

Hours before the news of the arrest of the five alleged kidnappers Bulgarian news agency BTA said that kidnappers of retired businessman Vene Sotirov (64) have asked for one million leva in ransom.

Sotirov went missing on April 16 2009. Witnesses claimed that he was "detained" by a group of men posing as police officers which Sotirov was entering the residential building in Souhata Reka borough that he lives in.

It was because of this that the media suggested that he had been abducted by the same group of men who kidnapped Kirov. The latter said that the men who attacked him on March 27 2009 were all wearing police masks and acted as police officers.