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A major operation targeting cigarette smugglers has been carried out in Lithuania. Lithuanian media reported investigative actions earlier this week. Today, the Criminal Police Bureau and the Prosecutor General’s Office shared the results of the operation.
In total, 27 people were detained across the country, including 13 police officers and border guards. Seventy-four searches were conducted during the operation.
The operation was carried out within the framework of two investigations.
“Members of the criminal organisation used GPS devices as well as encrypted communication tools to know precisely where the meteorological balloons landed. <…> They then collected them, stored them and, of course, distributed the smuggled cigarettes.”, Deputy Commissioner General of the Lithuanian Police Marius Draudvila said, according to LRT.
As part of the first investigation, 17 people were detained between 19 and 21 May. Among the detained officials were three officers of the State Border Guard Service, including two shift supervisors. In addition, eight patrol officers from the Šalčininkai District Police Commissariat, one investigator from a territorial police unit in Vilnius and one forensic specialist (senior investigator) from the Vilnius County Chief Police Commissariat were detained. They have been suspended from duty and may later be dismissed. Police officers and border guards are accused of providing official information to smugglers.
Those detained also include a civilian employee — a staff member of the Šalčininkai municipality.
Within this investigation, suspicions concern not only smuggling and creating a criminal organisation but also assisting another state in actions against Lithuania. The latter accusation refers to disruption of operations at Vilnius Airport.
“The collected data allows us to assume with a sufficient degree of probability that organised criminal groups operating separately in Lithuania and the Republic of Belarus formed a highly secretive criminal organisation under strict control by its organisers and aimed at systematically profiting from the smuggling of excise goods (cigarettes), possibly deliberately creating threats to our state.
At present, 49 suspects are involved in the pre-trial investigation, and the total value of assets seized from them, according to available data, amounts to €4.2 million.”, the Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office said.
Under the second case, 10 people were detained. In total, there are 11 suspects in that investigation. It concerns a group operating in the areas of Alytus, Druskininkai, Varėna and Lazdijai.