Police have arrested five people and seized a record one kilogram of amphetamine, the largest amount of the drug ever seized in southern Estonia.
Police had discovered 80 grams of amphetamine and 99 tablets of ecstasy in a car near Tartu in early August. Two young men, identified as Viktor and Yevgeni, were discovered in the car and were placed under arrest. Both were under the influence of narcotics.
The police then intercepted another car involved in trafficking in Tartu on Aug. 17.
The driver of that car initially attempted to flee from police, and the driver threw a cardboard box containing a plastic bag filled with one kilogram of amphetamine out of the car's window before he was stopped.
The men inside the car, identified as Henrik and Anatoli, both in their 20s, were detained. A day later, narcotics police together with officers from the Tax and Customs Board and the police K commandos unit detained a middle-aged man, Vladislav, in Tallinn. He is believed to have supplied the amphetamine to the younger men.
Heiki Rood, chief superintendent of the narcotics police of the South prefecture, said the haul was the largest amount of amphetamine seized by police in southern Estonia so far. The one kilogram of amphetamine corresponds to at least 6,000 doses.
"Police succeeded in uncovering a narcotics dealing chain. The scope of activity of the five men is being investigated," chief of the southern prefecture Aivar Otsalt said. Police seized 177 grams of amphetamine in the southern prefecture i 2005, and 343 grams during the first half of 2006.
