At a press conference in Maribor on 3 November 2009, representatives of the Slovenian Police and Customs Administration described in detail one of the biggest seizures of illicit drugs in recent times. At the Gruškovje border crossing police officers, together with customs officers, discovered 24.5 kilograms of heroin.

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The press conference was held by (from left) Slavko Koroš, Criminal Police Directorate at the General Police Directorate; Marjan Fank, Maribor Police Directorate; and Milan Klep, Head of Customs at Gruškovje.


Mr Klep informed us that a 26-year-old citizen of Serbia had arrived by car with Austrian licence plates at the Gruškovje international border crossing on the evening of 29 October 2009.  Although he said he had nothing to declare, two customs officers conducted a thorough search of his vehicle and luggage.

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There was a shelf with loudspeakers in the boot of the car. The customs officers established that the top of the shelf and the front consisted of particle board, while the bottom was made of hardboard.  The thickness of the particle board and hardboard led them to believe that there was a special compartment between the two boards.

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They removed the front and saw brown packages wrapped in transparent polyvinyl. They immediately suspected that these packages contained illicit drugs. A further search of the car was conducted by customs officers and criminal police officers. Together they discovered 37 packages with a gross weight of 27.5 kilograms, or a total net weight of 24.6 kilograms.

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Mr Fank from the Maribor Police Directorate explained that this is indeed a large quantity of a highly dangerous illicit drug causing serious addiction. The wholesale value of the seized heroin for dealers would be around EUR 270,000, with a street value, taking into account that it would have to be diluted with other substances, of around EUR 1.3 million.

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At Gruškovje, the largest quantity of heroin was seized in November 2008, when customs officers found 200 packages containing 105 kilograms of the illicit drug in the cab of a lorry.

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Parcel containing cocaine seized

On this occasion Mr Koroš from the General Police Directorate presented another major seizure of an illicit drug in October, namely 500 grams of cocaine.

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The Slovenian Criminal Police, in cooperation with other foreign security authorities, in particular the German Federal Criminal Office of Wiesbaden (BKA Wiesbaden), acquired information on cocaine being smuggled from Argentina to Slovenia via post.  Therefore, along with the foreign security authorities we started gathering evidence for a criminal procedure.

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The customs officers from Dresden in Germany inspected an airmail package from Argentina at the Leipzig airport on 24 October 2009. Having opened the package, the German customs officers found ten pieces of photo-documentation and an unknown white powder hidden between these pieces; subsequent analysis revealed that there were 500 grams of cocaine.

A person from Argentina was specified on the package as the sender and a person from the area of Slovenska Bistrica as the recipient. In association with the German criminal police we monitored this consignment, which was delivered to a person in the area of Slovenska Bistrica. Upon delivery we apprehended a 33-year-old suspect from the area of Slovenska Bistrica.