Woman held for trying to smuggle heroin via DHL

DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajik police have arrested a woman for trying to smuggle heroin in a refrigerator through express delivery firm DHL, the interior ministry said Friday.

The DHL office in the Tajik capital Dushanbe grew suspicious after noticing that its transportation cost to Moscow exceeded the actual cost of the fridge by several times. It then called the police, said the interior ministry.

"We have arrested a 26-year-old woman who tried to send via DHL a refrigerator with a total of 17.4 kg of heroin hidden in its inner cover plate," said Interior Ministry spokesman Khudoinazar Asozoda.

DHL in Dushanbe said it could not comment on the matter.

Tajikistan, an impoverished ex-Soviet state, lies on a main drugs trafficking route out of neighboring Afghanistan, the world's top producer of opium and its refined form, heroin.