Moscow - Police in far-eastern Russia found a half-ton of black caviar in a hearse they stopped for speeding, an Interior Ministry statement said on Tuesday.
The caviar appeared to have come from sturgeon, whose harvesting has been severely restricted because of the fish’s dwindling population in the wild.
Police saw plastic containers filled with caviar poorly hidden under funeral wreaths while inspecting the vehicle during the traffic stop.
The officers then found more of the containers inside the casket, which did not contain a body.
Police detained the two men in the hearse, which was a converted Nissan minibus, on suspicion of smuggling, the statement said.
The suspects said they were paid 25 000 roubles (400 dollars), about the average monthly pay in the region, to transport the casket from a rural district to the nearby city of Khabarovsk near the Chinese border.
DPA
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