Sofia--Bulgarian customs agency said it had incinerated nearly a tonne of illegal drugs on Monday, including heroin and ecstasy, with an estimated black market value of 100 million euros ($110 million).
Bulgaria is located on one of the world's main drug trafficking routes and smugglers use the eastern European country to transport narcotics from the Middle East into western Europe.
Monday's massive load included 241 kilos (530 pounds) of heroin -- the most heavily trafficked across Bulgaria's borders.
Customs authorities also destroyed 213 kilos of cannabis, 123 kilos of ecstasy and smaller amounts of narcotics seized either at the border or in police raids across the country.
The authorities only disposed of the drugs after courts had used them as evidence in more than 800 trials, the customs agency said.
In recent years, traffickers with links to Africa have increasingly teamed up with networks in Bulgaria to transport cocaine and heroin from South America to Europe, the US State Department said in a 2014 report on the global narcotics trade.
The Bulgarian authorities have destroyed nearly 34 tonnes of narcotics in the past 14 years, according to customs agency data.
AFP
