Russia Seizes Half Tonne Of Contraband Caviar

Russian police seized almost half a tonne of contraband caviar worth an estimated $600,000 as it was being smuggled through a military airfield in black rubbish bags, the interior ministry said on Monday. Following a tip-off, police intercepted the 460 kg (1,1014 lb) of caviar at Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow, where it was flown from Khabarovsk in Russia's Far East, said Yuri Sinyutin, a spokesman for the ministry's economic safety department. "In order to get this much black caviar, poachers caught and destroyed over 23 tonnes of sturgeon, themselves worth around 10 million roubles ($400,000)," said Sinyutin. Environmentalists say sturgeon fish, from which caviar is produced, are on the verge of extinction...