Latvian customs officers nab traffickers with over 200 kg hashish

Latvian customs officers stopped drug traffickers from smuggling more than 200 kg of hashish over the Lithuanian-Latvian border earlier this month, Latvian Customs chief Kaspars Podins told a news conference on Thursday.

A haul of more than 200 kg of the narcotic was seized from a secret compartment built in the floor of a Nissan truck, and 563 grams of hashish were found in the salon and engine compartment of a Ford automobile, said Podins.

The amount of drugs seized from the two vehicles is equal to 400,000 doses, and its estimated black-market value can exceed two million euros (about 2.2 million U.S. dollars).

The drivers of the vehicles, two Estonian citizens, were taken into custody.

The Latvian customs officers conducted the operation in collaboration with their Lithuanian colleagues and used trained sniffer dogs to find the hidden drugs, the customs official said. Endit