Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service has detained a shipment of contraband cigarettes bearing Belarusian excise stamps and several suspects, including an active-duty border guard officer.
The operation involved units from the Immunity Board, Criminal Investigations Board, the Kovas special operations unit and the Vilnius Border Guard Detachment, LRT reported.
A Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van driven by a 48-year-old resident of the Šalčininkai District was stopped on the Vilnius–Utena road. Officers found 71 boxes containing 35,500 packs of contraband cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps worth about 191,000 euros, including Lithuanian taxes.
About three kilometres ahead, a Volkswagen Passat believed to be escorting the van was stopped. The driver was a 51-year-old Belarusian citizen holding a Lithuanian residence permit. He was accompanied by two Belarusian citizens, aged 25 and 28, who were also legally residing in the country.
Shortly afterward, three more suspects — residents of the Švenčionys District aged 20, 34 and 38 — were detained at various locations, along with a 29-year-old junior specialist from the Adutiškis Border Guard Station who was on duty at the time. During searches, investigators seized an additional 21,000 packs of cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps, cash and other items relevant to the investigation. According to investigators, the cigarettes may have been transported into Lithuania from Belarus using drones.
The detained border guard officer has been charged with abuse of office. He has been suspended from duty and is the subject of an internal investigation. The remaining suspects have been placed under various preventive measures ranging from travel restrictions to pre-trial detention. A pre-trial investigation has been launched.
Last week, operations connected to a case involving the smuggling of cigarettes using weather balloons resulted in the detention of 27 people, including 10 police officers and three border guards.
According to Deputy Police Commissioner General Marius Draudvila, the detained officers neither organized nor directly carried out cigarette smuggling.
“Abuse of office can take many forms — turning a blind eye to certain activities, passing on official information, and other actions,” he said.
