MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. Customs officers in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, working in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), seized more than 773 kilograms (over 1,700 pounds) of hashish, the press office of the Russian Federal Customs Service (RFCS) said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Officers of the North-Western Customs Department in cooperation with FSB operatives from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region interdicted a smuggling operation run by an organized crime group that attempted to smuggle narcotics, namely hashish, from the territory of the European Union into Russia," the statement reads, adding that "a total illegal cargo consisting of 773.65 kilograms of hashish was seized."

The drugs were discovered in a hidden compartment of a cargo vehicle that carried 7,600 bars of hashish, which has an estimated black market value of over 350,000 million rubles (some $4.25 million).

A criminal case was opened on charges of drug smuggling. Three suspects from among members of the cross-border organized crime group were detained, two Russian citizens, one of whom holds a residency permit in an EU country, and one citizen of Belarus.