The Panevėžys Regional Court has found six residents of Vilnius, Trakai, Visaginas, and Rokiškis guilty of smuggling cigarettes from Belarus and illegally handling them as part of an organized group. The total amount of fines imposed reached nearly €100,000, the Lithuanian prosecutor’s office reported.
One of the convicted individuals is a former border guard from Visaginas. The verdict entered into force on May 7.
In May 2025, officers of Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service detained four men near Lake Prūtas in the Ignalina district, where the border with Belarus runs. Two of them were transporting boxes of cigarettes by boat, while the other two were loading them into a minibus. In total, authorities seized 90,000 packs of cigarettes bearing Belarusian excise stamps worth nearly €384,000.
That same night, a 42-year-old junior specialist from the Vilnius border guard unit was detained, and the following day investigators arrested a 38-year-old Vilnius resident who had allegedly organized the entire scheme. According to the investigation, the organizer and an unidentified accomplice assembled the group, purchased a minibus, rented a lakeside property, and obtained wetsuits and a boat engine. The border guard’s role was allegedly to inform the smugglers about the movements of fellow officers. He was also charged with abuse of office and was later dismissed from service.
The organizer was fined €25,000, the former border guard €14,700, and the other participants between €12,500 and €19,400 each. Authorities also confiscated wetsuits, mobile phones, and the boat engine, and ordered recovery of the value of the minibus, amounting to more than €5,000. All of the convicted individuals fully admitted guilt.
