Brest customs officers stopped a supply channel into Belarus after seizing about 160 kg of hashish from a lorry that had crossed from Poland at the Kozlovichi border checkpoint.[1] The drug was hidden behind the lining of the front wall of the semi-trailer.[1] The Belarusian customs committee said the supply channel had been organised by citizens of Belarus and European Union countries.[1]

A freight Mercedes-Benz truck was travelling through the Kozlovichi checkpoint with documents from a Polish haulier declaring a consignment of foil and fastening elements.[1] Officers sent the vehicle for an X-ray scan, which showed unusual attachments behind the front wall of the refrigerated trailer.[1] After the lining panels were removed, officers found a cavity holding 186 packets of a light-brown substance.[1]

Experts from the Brest Region directorate of the State Committee of Judicial Examinations concluded that the contents of one of the packets was hashish.[1] The customs committee put the total weight at about 160 kg, said it would have made more than 320,000 doses and valued it at more than 5 million US dollars on the black market.[1]

Brest Customs opened a criminal case against a group of people under part 2 of article 328-1 of the Belarusian Criminal Code, on illegal movement of narcotics across the customs border.[1] The article carries a prison term of up to ten years, the customs committee said.[1] Four suspects in organising the supply channel were detained in operations run with the drug-control department of the Brest Regional Executive Committee’s internal affairs directorate and the Belarusian Interior Ministry.[1] The state news agency BELTA reported the same seizure, saying the State Customs Committee had announced the case and that the truck was a Mercedes travelling through Kozlovichi.[2]