An unusual discovery was made when police in Russia's Far East stopped a speeding hearse on a highway.  They were surprised to find a coffin but instead of a body, they found half a tonne of caviar stashed inside.

As reported by The Guardian, the interior ministry's department in the Khabarovsk region said that the hearse was caught speeding on the road connecting Khabarovsk, to a city up north.  Khabarovsk is actually not far from the Chinese border. 

When the police officers asked the driver to open the vehicle, they saw plastic containers with caviar hidden under the wreaths lying next to the casket.  A lot more was found inside the otherwise empty casket. 

The two men in the hearse denied that they knew about the caviar.  The driver and his partner who both work for a funeral director denied being aware about the stash and said they were hired by a man in a village outside Khabarovsk to take the casket with the body of a female relative to a city morgue.  There was no body found in the casket.

The police are investigating into the source of the caviar and are considering charges for illegal production and distribution.  Caviar production is reported to be strictly regulated in Russia.

Wild caviar production and sturgeon fishing are almost entirely banned.  Only the indigenous native people of Russia's north are allowed given that they have obtained the necessary permits.  The caviar industry in Russia is strictly regulated and contained about 50 sturgeon farms.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, sturgeon populations in the Caspian Sea have declined dramatically.  Sturgeon is any of various large fishes of the family Acipenseridae, inhabiting the fresh and slat North Temperate waters, valued for their flesh and as a source of caviar and isinglass. 

The two men caught in the hearse are more likely staging a fake funeral.  What do you think?  Share us your thoughts by leaving your comments below.