BAKU: Azerbaijan has impounded more than half a ton of heroin, one of the biggest ever seizures in the country situated on a major smuggling route to Europe, officials said Monday.

The state customs committee said in a statement that its officers in the town of Bilasuvar — the Caucasus nation’s south-east — inspected a car traveling from Iran to EU member Latvia.
The statement added that 527.6 kilogrammes, about 1,160 pounds, of “heroin were found during the inspection.”
The committee said that criminal groups have previously used “Azerbaijan’s occupied territories” as a drugs’ transit route.
It referred to territories in the Nagorno-Karabakh region that were under the de-facto control of neighboring Armenia until last November, when Yerevan ceded the disputed lands to Baku following a deadly six-week war.
According to the committee, since the “restoration of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity” criminal groups have started using Azerbaijan’s customs and border points to smuggle drugs.
Azerbaijan has in the past reported numerous incidents involving drug traffickers attempting to cross over from Iran, with hundreds of kilogrammes of heroin seized annually.
The oil-rich ex-Soviet Caspian nation lies on a major drug smuggling route from Afghanistan and Iran to Europe and Russia, according to the 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released by the US Department of State.
SOURCE: AFP

Establishing Palestine with pre-1967 borders is bedrock of Pakistan's Middle East policy: PM
- 5 hours ago

We’re all about to be in wearable hell
- 6 hours ago

Apple’s executive reshuffling isn’t over
- 6 hours ago

You can still snag LG’s C4 OLED TV at half the price
- 6 hours ago

Once a club on the rise, Liverpool in desperate need of a spark under Gareth Taylor
- 3 hours ago

Punjab govt's important decision regarding toll plazas for public convenience
- 5 hours ago

Abhishek Bachchan first time wins Best Actor Filmfare Award in 25-year career
- 4 hours ago

Here’s how Apple is locking down iPhones to comply with Texas’ age verification law
- 6 hours ago

Can America recover from Trump? Here’s what new data says.
- 4 hours ago

Google to invest $15bn in India
- 5 hours ago

Azad Kashmir Information Minister Mazhar Saeed resigns
- 4 hours ago

OpenAI allegedly sent police to an AI regulation advocate’s door
- 6 hours ago