MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russian drug police seized on Wednesday a stash of over 330 kilograms of heroin worth 1 billion rubles (over $27 million), the Federal Service for Drug Control said.
The stash was hidden in a car traveling from southern Russia to Moscow. The car was stopped at a traffic police checkpoint and searched with the help of a specially trained dog, police said in a report.
The drugs were hidden under the seats and along the car’s frame, the report said. The amount of heroin in the stash could have been used to make a million single doses.
“The estimated street value of the seized drugs is about 1 billion rubles,” the report said.
Russia holds the first place worldwide for the number of heroin addicts per capita. The number of drug addicts in the country is estimated at 8.5 million people, or almost 6 percent of the total population, and an estimated 90 percent of them are heroin addicts, a government report said last year.
Some 30,000 Russians die from heroin use every year, according to official statistics.
