SOFIA, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian and Greek authorities have dismantled an organized crime group involved in drug trafficking from Turkey to the Netherlands and arrested four suspects, the Bulgarian Prosecutor's Office said in a statement on Thursday.
The leader of the group, a Bulgarian citizen, was arrested last Friday in the Bulgarian town of Sliven, the statement said.
The other three, also Bulgarians, were detained last Thursday with 42 kilograms of heroin in the Greek town of Komotini just after receiving the illicit drug from Albanian traffickers, the statement said.
The Bulgarian authorities have been monitoring the group since May 2019 and expected the heroin shipment at the Kulata border checkpoint, but the Greek police, which also tracked the Albanians, detained both the Albanians and the Bulgarians, the statement said.
The investigation has so far established that the group was engaged in trafficking large quantities of heroin from Turkey via Bulgaria to the Netherlands, using mainly vans and minivans equipped with secret compartments.
