Crime ring suspect jailed

The days when reputed Las Vegas mobsters threatened to break kneecaps over an unpaid debt were supposed to have disappeared with the traditional Mafia.

But according to federal prosecutors, a Las Vegas man accused of running a Bulgarian crime ring here has a new and, perhaps, bolder version of that threat.

In court papers Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Bliss alleged that 58-year-old Dimitar Dimitrov, who has a lengthy criminal history in Bulgaria and in this country, threatened to break the kneecaps and much more of a former crime associate who owed him $59,000.

Bliss wrote that Dimitrov vowed to get crime figures in Bulgaria to "cut off the ears" of the former associate, Atanasov Kostadinov, and "use them as cigarette holders." Dimitrov also threatened to have people break Kostadinov's leg, stab him in the spine and drown him, Bliss wrote.

This is the same guy FBI agents and Las Vegas police say they overheard on wiretaps bragging that he knew how to keep a witness in line by tying him to a tree with wire, pouring gasoline over him and standing next to him with cigarettes and a lighter.

At a detention hearing for Dimitrov on May 24, Bliss told U.S. Magistrate Robert Johnston that the defendant was heard saying, "I'm going to turn him into barbecue."

Johnston, however, wasn't impressed and ordered Dimitrov released on $100,000 bail with house arrest and electronic monitoring.

Bliss' latest unflattering portrayal of Dimitrov, however, got the attention of U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson, who put the magistrate's decision on hold Friday and ordered Dimitrov to remain behind bars.

Dawson plans to review the additional evidence presented.

Dimitrov and 10 others were indicted last month on a variety of federal charges related to the theft of cars from auto dealers and cash from bank ATMs.

In all, the ring has defrauded a dozen valley auto dealers out of $1.6 million worth of cars and stole at least $700,000 from ATMs over the past two years, prosecutors allege.

Bliss said in her court papers that Dimitrov was overheard on wiretaps bragging that he also has "crews" in the south of France, Spain and Portugal and frequently makes "business trips" to Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador.

Dimitrov, known by the nickname "Fero" in Bulgarian crime circles, also bragged about beating up and slashing the face of a man who reported to police that Dimitrov had stolen a luxury car, Bliss alleged.

Dimitrov's lawyer, Todd Leventhal, had questioned the credibility of the wiretap information Bliss presented at the detention hearing.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@review journal.com or 702-380-8135 or read more courts coverage at lvlegalnews.com.