Caviar transported by hearse? It could be illegal

MOSCOW -- Police in Russia's far east stopped a hearse speeding on a highway -- only to find half a ton of caviar stashed inside.

They were expecting to find a body.

The Interior Ministry said Tuesday the hearse was stopped on a road connecting Khabarovsk, not far from the Chinese border, to a city further north. When police asked the driver to open the car they say they saw plastic containers full of caviar, hidden under the wreaths lying next to a casket.

Naturally, they looked inside the casket, too, where they found more caviar -- and no body.

The driver and his partner, who both work for a funeral director, told police they''d been hired by a man who asked them to take the casket -- containing the body of a female relative -- to a city morgue. The men insisted they had no idea that they were transporting the fish-egg delicacy instead.

Caviar production in Russia is strictly regulated and contained to about 50 sturgeon farms. Sturgeon populations have shrunk dramatically since the fall of the Soviet Union because of illegal fishing, and wild caviar production and sturgeon fishing are almost entirely banned.

Police are looking into the source of the caviar-in-the-hearse and considering charges for illegal production and distribution.