A major drug smuggling attempt has been intercepted in southern Uzbekistan after border guards discovered hundreds of kilograms of illegal substances hidden inside heavy machinery being transported from Afghanistan.

Around 600 kilograms of prohibited narcotics were seized in the Surkhandarya Region during a border operation aimed at stopping cross-border drug trafficking, The Caspian Post reports via Sputnik Tajikistan.

The drugs were carefully concealed inside the body of an excavator loaded onto a freight trailer, in an attempt to disguise the shipment as construction equipment.