Recently there has been a boom in marijuana trafficking to Turkey via Bulgaria. Drugs route usually starts from Albania, and our country is a transit territory, Nova TV reveals.

The pandemic, it turns out, has boosted drug consumption worldwide. Especially of marijuana.

In the last two months alone, drugs worth nearly EUR 1,000,000 have been seized on our southwestern border. Stefan Bakalov has been in the drug-control system for over 20 years. Now he's in charge of the entire southwestern region.

"Marijuana trafficking is the most pressing issue now," he says and quotes a recent example:

“A truck, carrying no merchandise, but with cashes, was stopped at the Gyueshevo checkpoint. It's sent for scanner check. There's a cache in the undercarriage. It turns out to be a false alarm. Only the driver's belongings in there.

"At the moment the heaviest traffic is from the Western Balkans region, transit through Bulgaria to Turkey," Stefan Bakalov also says.

In the past year alone, more than two tons of marijuana have been seized. 30 percent more than in the previous year.

In the last two months alone, 25 kilograms of marijuana have been seized at the Gyueshevo border checkpoint. It is not known, however, how much drugs the authorities fail to capture.

The novelty in the traffickers' business are smaller shipments. Often carried not by trucks, but by cars.