Quarter Ton Counterfeit Caviar Confiscated from the Aircraft of Russia’s Largest Diamond Company

On December 23, 2009, approximately 220 kilograms of red salmon caviar of an unknown origin was confiscated at the Yakutsk Airport, in the city of Yakutsk in Eastern Siberia.

The caviar was packed into nine cardboard boxes and loaded into the rear end of an airplane belonging to ALROSA, world’s leading diamond miner. The plane was on its way to the city of Mirny, also in Eastern Siberia.

A few days earlier, the Yakutsk aviation security officials had received information from Vladivostok and Khabarovsk city officials to keep an eye out on this shipment.

The transit police in the Yakutia region, Siberia, is soon expected to initiate a criminal procedure. One airline employee has already been arrested on suspicion of loading the cargo onto the plane.

ALROSA Company Limited is one of the world’s leading companies in the field of diamond exploration, mining, manufacture and sales. It accounts for 97 percent of Russia’s diamond production, while its share in the global rough diamond production is 25 percent. The company has not given any comments regarding the issue.

For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic in our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: RIA Novosti