Stanislav Stamenov. (Photo: Virgin Active online platform showcasing personal trainers) 
Virgin Active says its legal team has contacted authorities about its suspended personal trainer, Stan Stamenov, who Daily Maverick exposed as a fugitive wanted by Romania in connection with drug trafficking.
On Monday, 26 January 2026, Daily Maverick reported how Stamenov was a personal trainer offering his services at the Virgin Active gym in the upmarket Cape Town suburb of Constantia, all the while being a fugitive whose full name is Stanislav Stamenov.
Nearly three years ago, Netwerk24 reported that he had been a bodyguard for Krasimir Kamenov, who was wanted in the country they were both from, Bulgaria, in connection with the murder of a policeman.
Read more: Interpol-wanted drug trafficker found working at Constantia Virgin Active as a personal trainer
Kamenov was murdered in May 2023 along with his wife, Gergana, and two of their employees in his home in Constantia – the suburb where Stamenov offered personal training at the Virgin Active gym.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/08-Krasimir-Kamenov.jpg "Krasimir Kamenov was one of four people murdered in Constantia on 25 May 2023. He was wanted by Bulgarian authorities. (Photo: Interpol website)")
Stamenov’s photograph and details, under the name Stan Stamenov, had been on a wall inside the gym showing its personal trainers, as well as on a Virgin Active online platform.
At the same time, another photograph under the name Stanislav Stamenov was on an International Criminal Police Organization’s (Interpol’s) Red Notice, which is a request to law enforcement worldwide to provisionally arrest an individual.
Interpol’s Red Notice for Stamenov said he was wanted by Romania, and this related to “trafficking in drugs”.
‘Legal team has contacted authorities’
After Daily Maverick sent Virgin Active a query about Stanemov on Monday, it responded by saying he had been suspended with immediate effect while an internal review process was under way.
Virgin Active was also trying to confirm whether Stamenov was indeed the same person whom Interpol flagged as wanted by Romania.
On Tuesday evening, Virgin Active’s head of customer service, Jacqui Walter, responding to a follow-up query from Daily Maverick, said: “Our standard internal process is currently under way, and our legal team has made contact with the relevant authorities.
“At this stage, we are unable to share further details, but please be assured that the matter is being treated with the utmost seriousness.”
/file/attachments/orphans/A-wall-in-the-Virgin-Active-gym-in-Constantia-showing-various-personal-trainers_322651.jpg "A wall in the Virgin Active gym in Constantia shows personal trainers, including Stan Stamenov. (Image: Supplied)")
An online platform that Virgin Active uses to showcase its personal trainers had included Stamenov, but on Tuesday and Wednesday, this site was no longer accessible.
The Interpol Red Notice for Stamenov, meanwhile, remained on its website.
Daily Maverick sent the national South African Police Service (SAPS) spokesperson a query about Stamenov’s probable presence in Cape Town on Sunday, 25 January, and has since requested a response daily.
Tight-lipped police
None was forthcoming by the time of publication on Wednesday, so it is unclear where the SAPS stands on the matter.
Daily Maverick also asked the Western Cape Hawks about the matter on Wednesday. Its spokesperson, Warrant Officer Zinzi Hani, said the provincial organised crime unit was dealing with it.
The Western Cape police media team referred Daily Maverick to the national SAPS, which has not responded.
In June 2023, when Daily Maverick first asked about Stamenov and a second wanted Bulgarian, national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said: “The SAPS and Interpol confirm that a Red Notice has been issued and is currently being processed.
“Both the SAPS and Interpol wish not to comment on an ongoing investigation as this may jeopardise the integrity of the investigation that has reached an advanced and sensitive stage.”
/file/attachments/orphans/Stanislav-Stamenov-as-depicted-on-an-Interpol-red-notice-screegrabbed-on-23-January-2026_579206.jpg "Stanislav Stamenov as depicted on an Interpol Red Notice on 23 January 2026. (Image: Supplied)")
The Interpol website, meanwhile, makes it clear that it “cannot compel the law enforcement authorities in any country to arrest someone who is the subject of a Red Notice”.
It says: “Each member country decides what legal value it gives to a Red Notice and the authority of their law enforcement officers to make arrests.”
Heroin crackdown in Romania
Stamenov’s legal issues appear to stretch back at least 17 years, to 2009.
Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIOCT) issued a statement that year that referred to a man with the same full name as Stamenov.
That statement said that 29 people – “members of an organised criminal group” – were arrested for alleged involvement in “high-risk drug trafficking”.
It said that one of those arrested was receiving heroin from another person, who was sourcing it in large quantities from “a Bulgarian citizen”.
The DIOCT statement said that on 19 June 2009, a surveillance operation was held in Giurgiu, a city in Romania, and through this, 2kg of heroin was intercepted.
The heroin was allegedly taken into that country by Stamenov, who, with an associate, was suspected of being part of the trafficking network.
According to the DIOCT, evidence in the case suggested that “the Bulgarian” individuals carried out six or seven similar transactions, each involving 2kg of heroin, at that stage worth €14,000 a kilogram (about R266,000).
16-year prison sentence
Stamenov is named in Bucharest Court of Appeal proceedings, linked to 2009, according to an online site covering legal matters.
Daily Maverick has established that his date of birth, according to those proceedings, matches that on his Interpol Red Notice and that of a man named Stamenov Stanislav – who is probably the same person – once the director of a private company with an address registered in the Western Cape.
The birth date also matches a fugitive listed on the Romanian police website.
/file/attachments/orphans/Stanislav-Stamenov-is-shown-under-a-section-enttitled-fugitives-on-the-Romanian-police-website_861380.jpg "Stanislav Stamenov appears under a section on fugitives on the Romanian police website. (Image: Supplied)")
It says that Stamenov is wanted over a warrant for the execution of a prison sentence.
The Romanian police website also says that a court in Bucharest issued the warrant for the execution of a 16-year jail sentence dating back to 2013 “for committing the offence of high-risk drug trafficking”.
When Daily Maverick called the number Stamenov used for his personal training services on Monday, a woman answered and agreed that this journalist could send a WhatsApp, as he was busy.
This message was sent, but it appears that this journalist was subsequently blocked.
A second WhatsApp message sent to the number on Wednesday, as well as a call to the number, did not go through. DM