Bulgaria seizes nearly 1 ton of illegal hookah tobacco

SOFIA, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian customs officers at Danube Bridge checkpoint near the town of Vidin at the border with Romania have captured 997 kg of undeclared hookah tobacco, officials said here on Wednesday.

The tobacco, split into 997 packages weighing one kg each, was discovered earlier Tuesday after an X-ray examination of a freight van with Bulgarian registration traveling from Bulgaria to Western Europe, the National Customs Agency (NCA) said in a press release.

An investigation has begun, it said.

Last year, the NCA seized more than 5.4 tons of smuggled tobacco.