Police admitted yesterday that the seizure of some 600 million euros’ worth of heroin, the biggest catch to ever take place in Greece, came about completely by chance after the car in which the drugs were being transported was involved in a minor traffic accident.

Officers seized some 83 kilos of heroin after stopping the car at a roadblock near the port of Igoumenitsa in northwestern Greece on Wednesday night and arrested an American male and a German man and woman who were in the vehicle.

The check only took place, officers said, because a truckdriver had earlier called the police to report that he had been involved in a minor collision with the car and that it had driven off without an exchange of insurance details.

Officers accompanied by a sniffer dog searched the car and found the drugs in 162 bundles hidden in a secret compartment in the vehicle’s floor. The heroin had a street value of between 500 and 600 million euros, police said, and had been smuggled in from Turkey. The three suspects are believed to have been on their way to board a ferry to Italy.