RIGA, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Latvian law enforcement officers last week seized a record large haul of hashish from a truck that was detained on a highway in eastern Latvia, local police confirmed on Thursday.
State police spokeswoman Gita Gzibovska said that the street value of the 1,000 kilos of drugs might be an estimated 15 million euros (about 17.9 million U.S. dollars) and that two suspects are currently in custody in connection with the case.
The truck with Lithuanian registration plates and a ton of hashish hidden inside its semitrailer was detained in a police operation on the Riga-Daugavpils highway on March 12.
The hashish was found in black plastic bundles hidden beneath artificial stone slabs in the truck's semitrailer, said the police spokeswoman.
The vehicle's driver, a 56-years-old Lithuanian, was held on suspicion of drug trafficking. Meanwhile, a 49-years-old Latvian man was arrested in Riga in connection with the drug trafficking case.
"In the past decade, we have detained several hauls of hashish as they were being shipped to foreign countries. It is no secret that Latvia is not the end market of such large hauls. This particular haul was most probably being transported to Eastern European countries," said Sandis Radzins, head of the organized crime enforcement unit of the Latvian state police. Enditem