MINSK, March 25 (RIA Novosti) – Customs officers in Belarus said on Monday that they intercepted a major haul of heroin heading into neighboring Lithuania over the weekend.
The customs service said in a statement that it found 85 kilograms (187 pounds) of the drug after stopping and searching a Scania truck traveling from Georgia to Latvia at the Kotlovka border checkpoint on Friday. It said the driver was a national of Moldova.
The cargo manifest indicated soft drinks, but a search revealed a hidden compartment in a refrigerated trailer that contained 174 plastic bags filled with a brown powder.
“Analysis of the powder determined that the substance was heroin, presumably from Afghanistan, and weighed about 85 kilograms,” the statement said.
The black market value of the haul was estimated by Belarusian officials at over $5 million.
Belarusian customs seized more than 1.5 tons of illicit drugs in 2012, including 1 kilogram of heroin, the statement said.
