The Bulgarian police have seized a transport truck from Iran attempting to cross the Bulgarian – Turkey border with 288 kilos of pure heroin, with a street value of $15 million at the low end.
The heroin was dry-walled, meaning each brick of heroin was covered individually with drywalling material. According to the US 2019 Narcotics Report, Iran is a significant narcotics trafficking country, where narcotics are exited to Turkey or Iraq and then to Eastern Europe. The US State Department determined that its global illegal narcotics activities are assisted by the fact that Iran has a large underground economy, spurred by uneven taxation, widespread smuggling, sanctions evasion, and its expatriate community. That expat community is in Canada, US, UK and Germany. Over 40% of opiates from Afghanistan enter or transit through Iran.