Bulgarian customs officers

Bulgarian customs officers and police and Portuguese police arrested two Bulgarian cocaine smugglers at Lisbon airport during a joint operation.
Portuguese police detained a 38-year-old man who organised the international drug-smuggling ring from Latin America to Western Europe, and a 30-year-old drug dealer, an Interior Ministry press release said.
The dealer traveled from Brazil to Portugal. He had swallowed 1.2 kg of capsuled cocaine.
Drug dealers who swallow capsules to smuggle the drug, usually intake from 0.6 to 0.8 kg of narcotic substance, the press release said.
Bulgarian and Portuguese authorities worked nearly four months to reveal the smuggling ring. The arrest of the two Bulgarians was the last of a series of related arrests.
Bulgarian police detained two men, who had swallowed 1.2 kg of cocaine, at Sofia airport in November 2006. Other two Bulgarian traffickers were arrested at Lisbon airport a week later, on December 8 2006.

The total quantity of cocaine seized from the related operations is 4,4 kg. The drug could have been sold for more than 180 000 euro on European markets.