Court Orders Detention in Case of Laughing Gas Sales to Minors.

The District Court has ordered his permanent detention.

Within about a month, officers from the Criminal Police worked on several cases and reached the alleged distributor of the substance. Separately, Yesterday we seized around 4,000 doses before they were placed on the market, said the Director of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Varna, Senior Commissioner Tsvetan Pirovski. Police clarified that the investigated distribution was not carried out in a nightclub.

The administrative head of the Varna District Prosecutor’s Office, Nevena Ilieva, announced that on June 8 a pre-trial investigation was launched for the sale of laughing gas to minors. According to investigators, he had been engaged in this activity for years.

The court today imposed the measure of detention on remand on the 26-year-old man, charged with systematic sale of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to minors under a continued criminal offence scheme. The act is considered a serious intentional crime, punishable under Article 4 of the Criminal Code, with Bulgarian law providing for imprisonment from one to six years and a fine between 20,000 and 50,000 BGN. After reviewing the materials collected in the pre-trial proceedings, the court found that both legal requirements were met – reasonable suspicion of authorship and a real risk that the accused may commit another crime or abscond. The 26-year-old accused also has ongoing pre-trial proceedings for other general offences.

The detainee has no criminal record and maintains a high standard of living.