PRAGUE: Czech customs officials have seized 182 kilograms of heroin with a street value of nearly $ 37 million over the weekend in the country’s largest-ever drugs bust, marking a significant win in Europe’s fight against drug trafficking.
The shipment contained 477 separate bricks of the opiate hidden in hollowed-out risers in 53 pallets on a truck carrying kitchen equipment. The truck’s journey originated in Turkey, it was registered in Romania and was moving along the so-called Balkan Route, the path in which Afghan heroin typically moves into the European Union.
The last time Czech officials seized a large heroin shipment was the capture of 120 kilograms in 1998. The last similar seizure of drugs hidden in pallet risers was in 1990, when a truck entered the country carrying 100 kilograms of cocaine that originated in Columbia. No one has been charged yet since the police are investigating the case.
