Indonesian authorities have made their biggest ecstasy bust in 10 years, seizing more than one million pills with a street value estimated at $45 million, officials and reports said Tuesday.

Police standing guard over ecstasy pills, in Jakarta on May 28. Indonesian authorities have made their biggest ecstasy bust in 10 years, seizing more than one million pills with a street value estimated at $45 million, officials and reports s

The drugs were found in a shipping container from China, a spokesman for the National Narcotics Agency, Sumirat Dwiyanto, told AFP.

"On Monday, around 1.4 million ecstasy pills in a 20-foot shipping container were discovered hidden under boxes of aquarium accessories," he said.

"This is the biggest haul found in the last 10 years."

Dwiyanto declined to put a value on the drugs, but The Jakarta Post daily quoted the agency's chief Benny Mamoto as saying the pills were estimated to be worth more than $45 million.

After intercepting the drugs, narcotics officers followed a delivery truck from the port where the container had been delivered in Jakarta to a warehouse, later arresting eight Indonesians in connection with the haul.

Indonesia enforces stiff penalties including death by firing squad, for drug trafficking.