Lithuanian border guards intercepted seven shipments of cigarette contraband delivered from Belarus by weather balloons in a single day. According to the State Border Guard Service, this was the largest volume of airborne contraband seized in one day this year. Two suspects were detained.
A total of 12,700 packs of cigarettes were seized on Friday. The weather balloons landed in Varėna and Lazdijai districts, as well as in Druskininkai.
It was noted that one of the balloons landed in a hard-to-reach area of the Čepkeliai Nature Reserve. Border guards had to walk three kilometers through swamps. They discovered 3,500 packs of cigarettes that had arrived on three weather balloons connected to each other.
Since the beginning of the year, a total of 40 airborne smuggling shipments, or 108,000 packs of cigarettes, have been intercepted. Twenty-three people have been detained.