Police found 20 kilograms of cocaine and 26 kilograms of marijuana hidden in the fuel tank of a truck at the Lesovo border crossing, officers from the national organised crime unit GDBOP, the customs agency and the Yambol district prosecutor's office said at a briefing at the border post. Police arrested the driver, a 40-year-old Bulgarian man with a criminal record.

The truck and trailer were stopped on 25 September 2026 on the outbound lane while heading in transit to Turkey. Joint teams from customs and GDBOP pulled it aside for a check. An X-ray scan picked up an odd density in the truck's outer fuel tank. Customs officers then searched it closely, took the tank off and cut it open.

Inside they found 41 packages: 24 vacuum-sealed ones holding a green plant-like substance, and 17 more, wrapped in tape, filled with a white powder. A field drug test came back positive for both marijuana and cocaine.

Stefan Bakalov, deputy director of the customs agency, said the drugs are worth more than 2.2 million euros at court valuation prices. He said the packages had been wrapped in a special lead lining meant to fool detection equipment, and that the load had travelled in transit from Western Europe.

Senior commissioner Darin Kostov, deputy director of GDBOP, said the arrest follows a string of investigations by his unit into groups moving drugs through Bulgaria, and that raids are still under way at addresses across the country.

Yambol district prosecutor Doychin Doychev said the detained man has already been charged under article 242 of the criminal code, which carries up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to 200,000 levs. He has been remanded in custody for 72 hours by prosecutors' order, and the prosecution will ask the court to keep him in pre-trial detention.