ST. PETERSBURG, January 24. /TASS/. Officers of the Federal Customs Service of Russia in conjunction with the Federal Security Service (FSB) have uncovered and seized a shipment of cocaine exceeding 1,200 kilograms and estimated to have a street value of over 13 bln rubles ($150 mln) at the Great Port of St. Petersburg, resulting in the initiation of a major drug trafficking case, the FSB press office said in a statement.

"The smuggling of a major shipment of cocaine was prevented by the officers of the North-West Customs Administration and the Federal Security Service Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region at the Great Port of St. Petersburg. They seized over 1,200 kilograms of the illicit substance, with a retail street value of more than 13 bln rubles ($150 mln) in the black market. Based on the facts of the case, the Baltic Customs office has initiated a criminal case under Paragraph B, Part 4, Article 229.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (‘Smuggling of illegal drugs on a particularly large scale’)," the statement reads.

The narcotics were found in bags of coffee after first being detected by inspection equipment. The load had arrived from the port of Antwerp in Belgium. The cocaine had been compressed into block briquettes. An expert examination confirmed that the substance was the narcotic drug cocaine.