A speeding hearse stopped by traffic police in Russia's far east was found to be packed with half a tonne (1,100lb) of caviar.
The vehicle's driver claimed to be transporting a body to a funeral in
the city of Khabarovsk, but when officers searched inside they instead
found dozens of cans of the prized delicacy. The caviar was stashed
inside a coffin and concealed underneath funeral wreaths.
In its windscreen, the hearse had a sign reading "funeral" and even a picture of the supposedly deceased person.
The seized shipment is reported to be worth upwards of 10 million
roubles (£100,000, $156,000).
It appears that this was well-planned smuggling operation which also
used another car as a decoy to distract the traffic police. "But we
decided to ignore it and stop the vehicle that was following it
instead," says Insp Artem Shpilev.
Police arrested the driver and another funeral parlor employee who was
also traveling in the hearse - both of whom denied any knowledge of the
clandestine caviar, Russia's interior ministry said in a statement.
The fishing of sturgeon, which are traditionally associated with caviar,
is banned in Russia to try to stop a decline in the population. But a
study found that in 2010, only 19 out of 244 tonnes of caviar produced
in the country were made legally.
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