35617 | 17 March 2025 | 08:42

The woman has been acting upon order from clients. She has a price list that she has made for the clients. It depends on the type of animal. There is cutting, trampling, crushing, tormenting...

A man and a woman were arrested on Friday and charged with cruelty towards animals, causing them excruciating death.

 26-year-old Gabriela Sashova and 35-year-old Krasimir Georgiev were arrested by the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP) on suspicion of sharing videos on the dark web, primarily targeting foreigners. They are also charged with money laundering. How did the scheme work?

 The topic was discussed on the show "Hello, Bulgaria" by Vladimir Nguyen, Manager of "Information Technology" in the NGO SAY IT and Petia Altimirska, Chairwoman of the NGO "Campaigns and Activism for Animals in the Industry".

 "We received a notification from a person abroad who had previously tried to contact various international organizations, including media outlets, but did not receive assistance. They also sent an email to "Cybercrime" in Bulgaria, but did not receive a response. "We became aware of the case back in August last year," Nguyen said.

 According to him, the organization started reviewing the videos. "They show hours of footage of tortured animals. We wanted to know if these people were really from Bulgaria. We alerted the GDNP and decided to hand over the materials to the Bulgarian Elves, who were able to identify the perpetrators within a few hours.

 After that, we reported the case to the police, who took it very seriously," he emphasized.

 Petya Altimirskа stated that she has only watched a small part of the videos. "I only saw one or two videos, but that was enough for me. The woman was acting upon the request of clients. She has a price list that she created for the clients. It varies depending on the type of animal." There is cutting, trampling, crushing, torturing... Sometimes, if a second animal is involved - there is a promotion. For Black Friday she had made a promotion back in November," said Altimirska.

 She explained that on the Telegram channel where the videos of torturing animals are being offered, the users are anonymous. "We hope that the investigators will be able to trace the transactions and catch the sponsors of the videos. There is no way to prove that Bulgarians were among the users of this channel. At least we don't have any information at the moment that our fellow countrymen are members of this channel," she emphasized.

 Nguyen explained that this group of animal torturers has been operating for at least 2 to 3 years.

 26-year-old Gabriela has been taking in animals from ads in pet groups on Facebook, pretending to care for them. But her goal was obviously different. According to the investigation, for the sadistic killing of smaller animals the rate was 100 euros, while for larger animals like cats, rabbits and small dogs - 700 euros. Recorded messages from 35-year-old Krasimir have surfaced, in which he excitedly speaks in a depraved manner to Gabriela. It turned out that he had mistakenly sent them to a woman from whom he had asked to adopt a cat.

 The couple had been committing the animal killings in parallel, engaging in depraved sex in front of a camera. During the search of their apartment, sadomasochistic costumes, whips, handcuffs and other BDSM attributes were found. Krasimir often took on the role of the victim, while Gabriela tied him up and whipped him. At the same time as their perverted sex game, they tortured a small animal. Video shows how a young woman from Pernik, dressed in a Catwoman mask, smashes a small kitten's head with a heel, while her partner Krasimir is half-naked and tied up next to her. In another video, a mouse can be seen tied up while a car slowly drives over it, crushing it with its tires.

 There are even more brutal videos, which are not suitable for people with a weak psyche, warned the investigators. According to them, these are the most heinous animal killings ever revealed in our country. The prosecution presented 9 video clips as evidence, depicting the animals being cruelly tortured before being killed. The footage shows the woman crushing with boots, using a stun gun and decapitating two guinea pigs with a machete.

 Gabriela herself has been posting stories on Instagram and TikTok, in which she talks about her fetish for crushing and makes comparisons to the "brutality" fights in the video game "Mortal Kombat".

 In her profiles, she also showcases a glamorous lifestyle, boasting expensive vacations to exotic places. She often shares videos expressing her love for animals and posts pictures of herself admiring dogs, cats, and reptiles. She even has a yorkshire terrier puppy of her own whom she frequently poses with. Now, many environmentalists are calling for the dog to be taken away from her in order to save it, as they suspect it may also be a potential victim of her sadistic desires.

 Thousands of animal lovers organized themselves through social media and launched a petition demanding a life sentence for Gabriela and Krasimir. Currently, the law defines causing the death or injury of a vertebrate animal through cruelty as a crime. However, the punishment is only up to three years imprisonment and a fine of 1000 to 5000 leva.

 Brutal threats and calls for lynching flooded the profiles of Gabriela, Krasimir, and their mothers Silvia Bogomilova and Penka Georgieva on social media. After the information about the tortured animals was revealed on Friday, the two mothers attempted to defend their children's actions, which further fueled the discontent of people towards them. 
Sylvia Bogomilova was revealed to have been a mayoral candidate for the village of Divotino from the "Democratic Bulgaria" party, which prompted many to email the party. Massively in groups on social networks, animal lovers share the addresses of the families, their phone numbers, as well as individual details about their lives.

 Lawyers of Gabriela and Krasimir tried to extract them from the arrest, insisting that the woman in the videos was wearing a mask and could not be recognized. They even went further, claiming that the videos could have been manipulated by artificial intelligence (AI). The two suspects did not plead guilty and explained that their mental state was shattered after the arrests and they want to be released.

 "I was forced by the investigating police to be filmed naked. I cannot broadcast interviews because that would be sharing personal data," said the mayor. "I am asking for a lighter measure due to my mental state since yesterday," said the woman from Pernik in the courtroom. However, the District Court in Pernik was categorical that the only adequate measure for the two is "remand in custody." If they appeal, the case will be heard by the Sofia Court of Appeals next week.

 Hundreds of gigabytes containing videos of tortured and killed animals were found on their home computer during a search by GDPOB in their apartment in the Sofia district of "Lyulin."

 One of the videos shows them cutting a hamster with machetes on the kitchen table where they also eat. In some of the clips, Krasimir can be heard giving instructions to Gabriela on what to do with the animals.

 The aim of the brutality is to create crush fetish videos depicting sexual techniques involving smearing, including pornographic sadistic content. Among their victims are possibly hundreds of cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, even snakes and fish.

 They were exposed after a report from Germany by a Telegram channel connected to Gabriela's phone number.

 "I have an extreme intolerance for any kind of cruelty - whether towards animals or humans. I have always expressed strong opinions, some of them being quite extreme when I see brutality bordering on sadism," commented the mayor of Pernik, Stanislav Vladimirov, who has taken a strong stance against the behavior of the two accused. He even emphasized in a Facebook post that  "Gabriela Sachova and Krasimir Georgiev are not welcome in Pernik."

 "I personally have seen Gabriela once or twice in the past years. She does not live in the territory of the village of Divotino. There is increased police violence in the village, because I have received reports in the past few days - mainly from elderly people - that the tension is escalating. There are more police officers to calm the worried residents of the area," explained the mayor of Divotino village, Simeon Metodiev, where Gabriela's father's house is located.