{"id":536432,"date":"2026-04-24T17:13:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=536432"},"modified":"2026-04-24T17:44:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:44:45","slug":"belarusian-detained-in-poland-over-cigarette-smuggling-using-weather-balloons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/belarusian-detained-in-poland-over-cigarette-smuggling-using-weather-balloons","title":{"rendered":"Belarusian Detained In Poland Over Cigarette Smuggling Using Weather Balloons"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>The Border Guard in Bia\u0142a Podlaska is investigating a criminal case involving an organised crime group that smuggled cigarettes using weather balloons between May 2025 and April 2026. Among those detained is a 34-year-old Belarusian citizen, <b>Mikhail S<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cMembers of the group, using favourable weather conditions, smuggled cigarettes across the Belarusian-Polish border with the help of 160 meteorological balloons. After landing on Polish territory, the cigarettes were handed over to other members of the group for further distribution\u201d<\/i>, the regional prosecutor\u2019s office in Lublin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.pl\/web\/pr-lublin\/komunikat-rzecznika-prasowego-prokuratury-regionalnej-w-lublinie-dotyczacy-zorganizowanej-grupy-przestepczej-zajmujacej-sie-przemytem-papierosow-z-bialorusi-przy-wykorzystaniu-balonow\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Belarusian has been charged with smuggling 240,000 packs of cigarettes with a total value of at least 4.4 million zlotys ($1.2 million). Prosecutors say smuggling was his main source of income. He is also accused of leading an organised criminal group, violating sanctions laws and breaching air traffic regulations.<\/p>\n<p>The Belarusian partially admitted guilt. At the request of prosecutors, he has been placed in custody for three months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Border Guard in Bia\u0142a Podlaska is investigating a criminal case involving an organised crime group that smuggled cigarettes using weather balloons between May 2025 and April 2026. Among those detained is a 34-year-old Belarusian citizen, Mikhail S. \u201cMembers of the group, using favourable weather conditions, smuggled cigarettes across the Belarusian-Polish border with the help [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":521534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69eb81e0bccef.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Belarusian Detained In Poland Over Cigarette Smuggling Using Weather Balloons"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143284,143094],"tags":[143247,143248],"class_list":["post-536432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","category-incident","tag-kontrabanda-sigaret","tag-polsha"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536432","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=536432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}