ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Brazen drug traffickers used liquid soap bottles to hide huge quantities of heroin in a smuggling attempt that was foiled by officials last month.

The shipment of drugs from Azerbaijan was bound for Turkey, but law enforcement officers caught up with the traffickers in Georgia. The heroin was confiscated by the Georgian police and the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance, and two Georgians were arrested in connection with the crime.

The 80 per cent pure heroin - concealed in 93 plastic bottles labelled 'liquid soap' - was estimated to be worth hundreds of million of US dollars. The 30-litre containers were found in a lorry and the heroin, which weighed more than two tons, was thought to be the largest consignment of heroin ever to have been seized.

"Police have never stopped such consignments before - it is an unprecedented event," was the statement from the Ministry of Finance.

According to a US state department report on the control of drug trafficking, Azerbaijan is an established transit country for drugs originating from Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia, Russia and Europe. The US report claims heroin to be the most popular drug in Azerbaijan and adds that the number of addicts in that country has increased.

Drugs are frequently disguised as 'innocent' liquids by traffickers. Crystal meth dissolved in a liquid solution and sealed in plastic detergent bottles is regularly smuggled from Mexico to the US. Once the drugs reach a national distribution hub in California's Central Valley it is converted into crystals before being sold on the street.