Bulgarian customs officers seize record breaking half a tonne of heroin

"436 kilograms of high-risk narcotics – heroin, placed in 434 package. This is the largest amount of narcotics seized on the territory of the coastal city of Burgas. The drugs are worth about 70 million BGN. At this stage, there have been no arrests and no persons found involved in the crime, which is a cross-border crime," said District Prosecutor Georgi Chinev on August 12.

"At the end of July, a cargo trailer with Kazakh registration arrived at one of the ports in Burgas by sea on the direction Kyrgyzstan - Batumi - Burgas - Alexandroupolis - Greece. According to the documents, it was carrying 4 cable laying machines. After an unusually long stay, a Lithuanian tractor-trailer with a Kazakh driver arrived, forming a cargo composition with the direction Alexandroupolis - Greece", added Ivan Sokolov, Head of the Sector "Fight against Drug Trafficking" at Burgas Customs.

In his words, the X-ray inspection on 9 August revealed a number of risk zones on the cargo structure.

"When opening the truck and unloading the machines - uneven layers of paint, new welds, unusually low density for metal structures. After drilling, a brown powdery substance appeared. After field tests gave indications of heroin. Apparently, there were closed-type concealments in the metal structures, cuts were made on the structure," Ivan Sokolov added.

He explained that plexiglas boxes with packets of heroin were found in each of the supporting beams.

"There were many empty concealments on the construction of the machines, if they were full, the total volume of one load would have been over 700 kilogrammes," Ivan Sokolov clarified.

"This is a particularly serious case of a particularly large size. The aim was to pass through Bulgaria and continue to Greece. At this stage, there is no identified individual involved in the smuggling committed at the end of July. A search and seizure of the entire cargo has been carried out. The penalty provides for 15 to 20 years imprisonment with a fine of 200,000 to 300,000 BGN and a penalty directed against the property of the offender. The semi-trailer arrived in Bulgaria by ferry from Georgia, but this is not the original place from which the shipment departed. The cargo has passed through the territory of several countries," said the supervising prosecutor Andrei Chervenyakov.