Source:   Reuters
Pubdate:  April 3, 1997

Bulgarian customs forsake soccer to make drug bust 

  SOFIA, April 3 (Reuter)  When seems a good time to smuggle heroin across
the Bulgarian border?  when Bulgaria's World Cup soccer team is in action
and customs officers are glued to their television sets. 

    Unfortunately for two Turkish smugglers, authorities at the Danube port
of Rousse were on alert  football or no football. 

    The men trying to cross into Romania on Wednesday night were stopped and
they turned out to have 23 kg (50 lbs) of heroin hidden in the chassis and
wheel arches of their MercedesBenz, customs spokesman Ivan Kutevski said on
Thursday. 

    Bulgaria, which is on the ``Balkan route'' for smugglers bringing drugs
into western Europe, beat Cyprus 41 in the World Cup qualifier in Sofia.