About 300 kg of counterfeit black caviar worth more than 1.5 million euros has been confiscated in Moscow, a Russian Interior Ministry`s official said Tuesday.

A total of 268 kg of beluga caviar was seized from a number of the city`s supermarkets, Yevgeny Shkolov, head of the ministry`s department for economic security, said.

He said the caviar had an unusual smell and was contaminated by E. Coli, an intestinal bug.

A criminal case has been launched. Police are trying to detect where the delicacy came from.

The sturgeon population in the Caspian Sea has dwindled almost forty-fold in the last 15 years because of overfishing and poaching. The poachers harvest the fish for their expensive black caviar.
sections: Accidents, Region News
areas: Central region