Russian police have seized 1.4 tons of sturgeon and 9 kg of caviar in two separate incidents, police said on Friday.

"The fish were discovered on Thursday in a Mitsubishi Canter truck" a police spokesman in the Far East city of Khabarovsk said.

Poachers target the fish, protected under Russian law, for its sought-after black caviar.

In another incident on Thursday, Russian South Ural police seized 9 kilograms of caviar in the restaurant carriage of a Moscow-Tashkent train.

Police said that Uzbek nationals were attempting to export the caviar from Russia illegally.

In Russia, one kilogram of the black sturgeon caviar costs around 35,000 rubles ($1,152).

KHABAROVSK, January 29 (RIA Novosti)