Workers of the investigation department of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board in a joint operation with US and Latvian law and order bodies apprehended members of an international criminal group, seizing more than 7.8 kilograms of cocaine.
By the beginning of May, officials of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board anti-drug unit, in cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the Latvian police, detained a criminal group of eight people as a result of surveillance work over a long period, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said.
Public prosecutor Helga Adamsoo said the drugs were carried to the Estonian coast in a small boat from a freighter sailing under a foreign flag in Estonian territorial waters and were to be forwarded to other Baltic countries from there.
The court has arrested six people, three of whom are Latvian citizens and two Lithuanian. One had an alien resident passport with a permanent residence permit in Latvia. The group was engaged in the smuggling of narcotic substances on the international level and upon arrest 7.8 kilograms of high quality cocaine was confiscated from them.
