A mix of poppy seeds and poppy straw weighing 25 tons was detained at Vitebsk customs

October 23, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. A mixture of poppy seeds and poppy straw with a total weight of almost 25 tons got stuck at the Vitebsk customs. Customs officers prevented the import of a large batch of narcotic substances into Belarus, the ideological work department of the Vitebsk customs informed a BELTA correspondent. At the end of August, at the republican customs clearance point "Urbany" (Braslav district), based on risk profiles, the movement of an Iveco truck driven by a citizen of the Republic of Belarus was suspended. The driver presented organic substances of the class of azo compounds and nitriles for customs clearance. The poisonous substance was transported with a total weight of over 7.6 tons from a sender located in Latvia. The recipient of the goods was a Russian limited liability company registered in Moscow. The carrier was a closed joint-stock company registered in Kaliningrad. During customs inspection, it was established that in addition to the declared goods, there were goods in the cargo compartment of the refrigerated semi-trailer that were not indicated in the accompanying documents - 995 bags of poppy seeds with a total mass of almost 25 tons. The discovery of poppy seeds not declared in the documents served as the basis for initiating an administrative process under Part 4 of Article 14.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus against the legal entity of the carrier. All bags with poppy seeds, the total value of which was estimated at Br1.2 billion, were moved to the "Vitebsk-Tsentralny" customs clearance point for further identification and determination of the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of narcotic substances, where poppy seeds were separated from the weed mixture under special conditions. According to the results of sieving, it was established that the total mass of the moved poppy seeds exceeded 17.8 tons, and the impurities amounted to 1.6 tons. After that, a chemical examination was appointed. In accordance with the conclusion of the expert of the Forensic Examination Center of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, the weed mixture obtained as a result of sorting, weighing 1.6 tons, contains a dangerous narcotic drug, poppy straw, weighing 1515.36 kg. The customs investigation department of the Vitebsk customs initiated a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 228 of the Criminal Code of Belarus on the fact of moving a narcotic drug - poppy straw - across the customs border of Belarus. Since this category of cases falls under the jurisdiction of KGB investigators, the case was transferred to the KGB administration for the Vitebsk region. -0-