Russia has detained a senior prison service official on suspicion of stealing a 30-mile (50km) stretch of public road, investigators said.

Alexander Protopopov oversaw the dismantling of a concrete highway and sold off the slabs while prison service chief in the far-northern Komi region, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The road, which was made up of more than 7,000 reinforced concrete slabs, was “dismantled and driven away” over more than a year, between 2014 and 2015.

The slabs were subsequently used by a company that sold them on for a profit, investigators said.

Protopopov, now acting deputy chief of the national prison service, faces charges of misappropriating state property while using his official position, which could lead to 10 years in jail.

While heading Komi region’s prison service from 2010 to 2015, Protopopov won awards, including a medal for creating “spiritual unity”, according to the prison service’s website.

Other prison service officials are accused of participating in the scheme, pretending to dispose of waste, with one arrested so far, prosecutors said earlier.

Investigators said the scheme had cost the Russian Federation more than 6m roubles (£55,000).

Allegations of corruption are rife in the Russian road construction sector, with costs much higher than on comparable projects in other countries.

The construction of a mountain road for the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 cost about $8bn, with Russian media claiming it would cost the same to cover the 29-mile (48km) stretch with black caviar.