Sofia - Bulgarian police seized a 70-kilo shipment of heroin and arrested a German national carrying it, the authorities in Sofia said Monday.

The man with two packets of the drug in a bunker of his car was arrested in Ruse, a town with the only bridge linking Bulgaria with Romania across the Danube.

Bulgaria straddles the key routes of international trafficking in narcotics, chemicals for drug-production and people. It incinerated 19 tons of various drugs over the past eight years.

The pressure on Bulgaria's borders became even greater when it joined the European Union and became the southeastern gateway of 27-nation bloc. (dpa)