{"id":517192,"date":"2026-02-13T14:29:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=517192"},"modified":"2026-02-13T16:13:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:13:04","slug":"drivers-of-passenger-bus-from-belarus-detained-in-lithuania-over-cigarette-smuggling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/drivers-of-passenger-bus-from-belarus-detained-in-lithuania-over-cigarette-smuggling","title":{"rendered":"Drivers Of Passenger Bus From Belarus Detained In Lithuania Over Cigarette Smuggling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Officers of the Vilnius Territorial Customs on February 10 detained another batch of smuggled cigarettes. This time, 2,500 packs were found on a passenger bus that had entered from Belarus through the Medininkai border crossing point.<\/p>\n

The drivers of the Yutong bus \u2014 both Belarusian citizens \u2014 stated that they were not transporting prohibited goods. However, customs officers noted that there were only seven passengers on board and decided to carry out a detailed inspection.<\/p>\n

During the inspection, concealed compartments with smuggled cigarettes were found in the structure of the drivers\u2019 sleeping areas. Additional checks using an X-ray system revealed even more hiding places in the floor, ceiling, and other structural cavities of the bus. The total value of the seized NZ Gold cigarettes, including taxes, amounted to 12,375 euros.<\/p>\n

The Vilnius division of the Customs Criminal Service has launched a pre-trial investigation into the smuggling under the supervision of prosecutors from the Vilnius District Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Both drivers have been detained. By decision of the Vilnius District Court, preventive measures were imposed, including seizure of documents, a written obligation not to leave the country, and a requirement to regularly report to the police, the Lithuanian Customs Service said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Officers of the Vilnius Territorial Customs on February 10 detained another batch of smuggled cigarettes. This time, 2,500 packs were found on a passenger bus that had entered from Belarus through the Medininkai border crossing point. The drivers of the Yutong bus \u2014 both Belarusian citizens \u2014 stated that they were not transporting prohibited goods. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":517191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/698f2365de54c.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Drivers Of Passenger Bus From Belarus Detained In Lithuania Over Cigarette Smuggling"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}