SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgarian police on Wednesday seized more than $43 million worth of cocaine from an apartment in the capital Sofia, occupied by a man who was detained a day earlier after police found 40 kg of the drug in his car, prosecutors said in a statement.
A total of 327 packages, weighing about 1 kg each and marked with car logos and playing cards, were found, they said.
Police said that the high-purity cocaine with an estimated street value of more than 40 million euros ($44 million) had been mainly destined for Western Europe and Asia.
“Only a small part was to be sold in Bulgaria,” senior police commissioner Georgi Hadzhiev said. “Considering the upcoming summer season, about 35-40 kg were for the Bulgarian market.”
Bulgaria, a Balkan country with a population of fewer than 7 million, has long served as a key route for smugglers moving goods between Europe and southwest Asia.
(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; editing by Nick Macfie)
