Cigarettes Worth Nearly 900,000 Euros Found in Buckets of Sawdust at Latvian Border

Reform.news Editorial Team · 12 December 2025, 16:20

https://reform.news/en/cigarettes-worth-nearly-900-000-euros-found-in-buckets-of-sawdust-at-latvian-border/

Latvian customs officers intercepted a large shipment of Belarusian cigarettes at the border. The cargo was being transported under the guise of hand-washing liquid and hidden in buckets filled with sawdust.

On 27 November, a truck with Kazakh licence plates arrived at the Paternieki border checkpoint on the Belarus–Latvia frontier. According to the documents, it was carrying hand-washing liquid.

Customs officers scanned the truck and, after developing suspicions, partially unloaded the cargo. Inside the buckets, instead of hand-washing liquid, they found sawdust in which cigarettes were concealed.

A total of more than 175,000 packs of NZ Gold, Queen Menthol and Minsk Superslims cigarettes were seized. Their value is estimated at 895,000 euros.

A criminal case has been opened for large-scale smuggling, the Latvian customs service reports.