Continued Discovery of Iranian Heroin Shipments in Europe

According to reports from two German and Swiss news agencies, Bulgarian border officials discovered a 200-kilogram shipment of heroin from Iran. The drugs were hidden in a truck heading to the Netherlands, concealed within cans of tomato paste. The value of the seized heroin is estimated to be nearly 10 million Swiss francs. Reports indicate that Bulgarian border officials detected the heroin smuggling through X-ray imaging of the cans. According to a spokesperson for the Bulgarian prosecutor's office, the heroin packages were of various sizes hidden inside the cans of tomato paste. Following the discovery of 200 kilograms of heroin at the Turkey-Bulgaria border, the truck driver, who is Iranian, was arrested. There has been no report on whether the truck driver was aware of the contents of the tomato paste cans; however, it has been stated that the driver could face a maximum of twenty years in prison if convicted. Reports indicate that this 200-kilogram heroin shipment is the largest seizure by border officials in Bulgaria, a country that has been a member of the European Union for nine years. This is not the first time that heroin smuggled from Iran has been seized by European authorities. In January two years ago, customs officials at Leipzig airport in Germany discovered 45 kilograms of heroin hidden in the fabric of nine carpets sent from Iran. The drugs were initially concealed in narrow capsules, which were then woven into the fabric and edges of the carpets. The excessive weight of the carpets prompted officials to use X-ray devices to uncover the smuggled heroin. Each carpet contained approximately 5 kilograms of heroin concealed in the aforementioned manner. Seven months after this incident, which was noted as an exceptional discovery in Germany, police in the country seized 330 kilograms of heroin in a truck carrying glass jars of pickles and garlic pickles from Iran in the city of Essen. The traffickers had poured this amount of heroin into empty jars of these pickles and concealed them alongside the original containers. The truck carrying these drugs had traveled from Iran to Iraq and then entered Germany through Balkan countries. Following the discovery of this 330-kilogram heroin shipment, two Syrian brothers were arrested in the cities of Essen and Cologne.