Half tonne of caviar found by Russian police hidden in coffin in speeding hearse

Russian police who stopped a hearse speeding towards the Chinese border were surprised to discover it was laden with half a tonne of caviar. It was pulled over on the road between Khabarovsk and a city further north, according to an interior ministry official. When police asked the driver to open the car they found a stash of plastic containers filled with the pricey fish eggs. It was also hidden under wreaths lying next to the coffin and, when the lid was removed, officers found more caviar - but no body.

The coffin was loaded into the hearse by men they didn’t know.

Police statement regarding the illegal cargo

The driver told police he had been hired to take a woman’s body to a city morgue and that he had no idea about the casket’s true contents. Officers are examining the source of the fishy stash and could bring charges for illegal distribution and production. Caviar production in Russia is strictly controlled with production limited to about 50 sturgeon farms. Wild caviar production and sturgeon fishing is almost completely banned, except for the indigenous people of northern Russia who can fish for sturgeon as long as they have permits. Populations of the fish in the Caspian Sea have shrunk dramatically since the collapse of the Soviet Union because of illegal fishing.

Europe caviar hearse