SOFIA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian law enforcement authorities at the country's Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint near the border with Turkey have seized 10.368 kg of opium, officials said Thursday.
The illicit drug was found on Wednesday inside the spare tyre of a Mercedes car entering from Turkey, the country's Prosecutor's Office and National Customs Agency (NCA) said in a joint statement.
Authorities estimated the value of the opium on the black market would exceed 368,000 U.S. dollars.
The driver of the vehicle, a 49-year-old British citizen, was arrested at the scene.
Bulgaria is on a popular transit route for drug trafficking. The amount of drugs and precursors seized by the NCA in 2017 reached a total of 7,572 kg, 16,128 liters and 11,699 tablets, of which 43.2 kg of opium in four cases.
