Border guards have recovered an incredible five tonnes of caviar after finding a large number of people in a village were illegally harvesting the eggs.
The raid on people in the village of Evensk which is a settlement in the Severo-Evensky District of Russia’s Magadan Oblast region found an incredible 230 containers of caviar.
Salmon caviar, also known as red caviar, is made from salmon eggs and is a popular part of both Russian and Japanese cuisine. Fishing is carefully controlled and restricted as the female salmon return to the breeding grounds only once in their lifetime to to lay eggs, and then die.
The raid was carried out by officers of the FSB border guard patrol who said the containers had been recovered in buildings, outhouses and even hidden in cars.
The FSB said the raid took place on 25th September and said the operation was carried out together with staff from the Federal Agency for Fisheries, the Ministry of the Interior and the Russian Guard.
The spokesman added: “Preliminary damage to the state is estimated at 140 million RUB (1.77 million GBP).”
Several people have been arrested and taken into custody pending a trial.
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Story By: Elena Kalioglo, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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