Taiwan Makes Massive Heroin Bust

Drugs found at airport stashed inside music equipment

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Sam Yeh / AFP / Getty Images

An armed Investigation Bureau staff guards confiscated drugs before being incinerated at a public incinerator plant in Taipei May 5, 2010.

A two-year intelligence effort culminated on Sunday in one of the largest drug busts the world has seen this year, when Taiwanese law enforcers seized a shipment of heroin with an estimated street value of $380 million at Taoyuan International Airport.

The six hundred bricks of heroin — totaling 229kg — were stashed inside music equipment and coated with chocolate paste in order to fool sniffer dogs, The China Post reports.

It is believed that the narcotics were produced in Myanmar and shipped to Taiwan through Vietnam. Taiwan is dealing with rising drug abuse, and has made several major busts in recent years. This however was the largest seizure seen on the island in two decades.

[China Post]