Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service has reported the detention of another smuggler who had come to collect a shipment of cigarettes delivered from Belarus by a weather balloon.
The detainee is a resident of the Alytus District. According to the border guards, the man came to retrieve the contraband but was forced to abandon the cigarettes after realizing he would not be able to carry them away. In the video released by the border guards, the man can be seen emerging from a forest and walking along a road. An SUV then pulls up to him and the detention takes place. At the same time, two more border guards with a dog emerge from the forest at the same spot where the detainee appeared, clearly following the smuggler’s trail.
It was noted that coordinates of the location where 1,500 packs of NZ Gold cigarettes were later seized were found on the detainee’s phone.
Later, another “associate” of the detainee was also caught.
This year, border guards have already detained 22 people for involvement in airborne cigarette smuggling. A total of 42 shipments, or nearly 113,000 packs of cigarettes, have been seized.