Customs Officials Announce Record Khat Bust
Customs officials recently found 116 kilograms of the psychoactive plant khat in a car bound for a ferry departing Tallinn, officials said today.
Two Estonians are accused of smuggling the psychoactive plant into the country from England and attempting to transport it on to Finland, a Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman told uudised.err.ee.
Most arrests for khat, which is illegal here and is soon to be banned in the UK, have involved lone Somalis. For many years, a major disparity existed, with Scandinavian countries handing down stiff real jail time while the plant was unregulated in Britain.
The shipment confiscated in early March is the biggest amount apprehended in Estonia.
Khat is perishable and usually transported by smugglers by air, which runs a greater risk of apprehension, said Prosecutor's Office officials.
In this case, an expediter's services were used, a solution favored by most khat smugglers.
Common in Yemeni and Somali expat communities in Britain and used in social rituals, the evergreen plant contains a substance that is classified a euphoric and stimulant, and, like other stimulants, has addictive properties.