{"id":527671,"date":"2026-03-23T11:49:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=527671"},"modified":"2026-03-23T12:15:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T09:15:41","slug":"belarusian-tried-to-smuggle-cigarettes-into-lithuania-car-had-to-be-dismantled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/belarusian-tried-to-smuggle-cigarettes-into-lithuania-car-had-to-be-dismantled","title":{"rendered":"Belarusian Tried to Smuggle Cigarettes into Lithuania, Car Had to Be Dismantled"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lithuanian customs officers in \u0160al\u010dininkai detained a passenger car in which a Belarusian citizen attempted to smuggle 11,568 packs of cigarettes into Lithuania. The vehicle had to be almost completely dismantled, as the cigarettes were hidden in the floor, ceiling, and engine compartment, the Lithuanian Customs Service reported.<\/p>\n

On March 9, the driver arrived at the \u0160al\u010dininkai border crossing in a Peugeot 807, stating that he was travelling to visit relatives. However, his behaviour raised suspicion, prompting a thorough inspection. It turned out that the car had been converted into a large-scale smuggling vehicle, with cigarettes hidden throughout \u2014 in the ceiling, floor, near the headlights, in the engine compartment, and inside the doors.<\/p>\n

In total, officers discovered 11,568 packs of Belarusian cigarettes \u201cNZ Gold\u201d and \u201cMinsk Superslim,\u201d with an estimated value (including taxes) exceeding 60,000 euros.<\/p>\n

The driver claimed that he had recently purchased the car and only later discovered it was filled with hidden cigarettes. He then decided to use the situation as an opportunity to \u201cmake money\u201d and drove to Lithuania.<\/p>\n

However, the attempt failed \u2014 customs officers confiscated both the car and the cigarettes. The Vilnius division of the Customs Criminal Service launched a pre-trial investigation into cigarette smuggling under the supervision of prosecutors from the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

The Vilnius District Court imposed three preventive measures on the driver: confiscation of documents, a written obligation not to leave his place of residence, and periodic registration with the police.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lithuanian customs officers in \u0160al\u010dininkai detained a passenger car in which a Belarusian citizen attempted to smuggle 11,568 packs of cigarettes into Lithuania. The vehicle had to be almost completely dismantled, as the cigarettes were hidden in the floor, ceiling, and engine compartment, the Lithuanian Customs Service reported. On March 9, the driver arrived at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":527670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69c104c88681a.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Belarusian Tried to Smuggle Cigarettes into Lithuania, Car Had to Be Dismantled"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143094],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-incident"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527671","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=527671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}