You're reading: Bulgaria seizes large cocaine shipment at port

Bulgarian customs say they have seized 67 kilograms (147 pounds) of cocaine coming from South America and destined for Western Europe.

The drugs, seized Sunday in the Danube port of Ruse, were worth an estimated €50 million ($66 million.) District prosecutor Ognyan Basarboliev says the drugs came from Argentina and were to be shipped to the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

The narcotic was divided into 66 packages wrapped in lead folio and hidden in a special compartment of a harvesting machine made in Argentina.

EU member Bulgaria, a major transit country for drug trafficking, has stepped up border inspections as part of its efforts to join the visa-free Schengen area in Europe.