Bulgarian Customs Officers Seized 5 Tonnes of Precursor to Heroin

Smuggling of 5 tonnes of precursor for heroin production is investigated under the leadership of Sofia District Prosecutor's Office.

This has been the largest quantity seized at the border this year.

The precursor was found in a vehicle with Croatian registration in the evening on 2^nd of August at Kalotina check point. According to the documents, the lorry was transporting 32 pallets of solar panels from a Croatian company to Turkey.

The vehicle was selected for an X-ray inspection where customs officers notice that there was a product of unusual density in the lorry body. In the follow-up thorough check, the customs officials found five plastic containers between the solar panels in the cargo area.

The five containers have a capacity of 1000 liters each and were filled with a colourless liquid with a sharp scent of vinegar. Samples were taken for laboratory analysis. Preliminary data showed that the substance found is acetic anhydride with a total weight of 5000 liters. Pre-trial proceedings were initiated under the supervision of Sofia District Prosecutor's Office.

The prosecution will press charges against the driver of the lorry for smuggling a precursor and will order his detention for 72 hours.

Acetic anhydride is a substance, which price at the legal market is not very high (about 1700 BGN per tonne). It is used especially in the leather industry, but it is also a precursor to heroin production. The seized amount of 5 tonnes can produce 2 tonnes of heroin worth 180 million BGN.

This is the largest amount of acetic anhydride seized by the Bulgarian customs this year, after in April customs officers discovered 178 tubes with a total of 3,560 litres of acetic anhydridein in three lorries transporting apples from Serbia to Iraq, again at Kalotina border crossing.

The total quantity of acetic anhydride seized by the Bulgarian customs authorities in 2017, including the last case, is 10,623 liters in five cases. Attempts to traffic the precursor across Bulgaria is a new trend since such type of smuggling did not happen at the Bulgarian borders for more than ten years.

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