{"id":596541,"date":"2026-10-30T21:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=596541"},"modified":"2026-10-30T22:12:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T19:12:47","slug":"another-weather-balloon-carrying-cigarettes-intercepted-in-lithuania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/another-weather-balloon-carrying-cigarettes-intercepted-in-lithuania","title":{"rendered":"Another Weather Balloon Carrying Cigarettes Intercepted in Lithuania"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Lithuanian border guards have intercepted another weather balloon carrying Belarusian cigarettes and detained two people, the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service <a href=\"https:\/\/vsat.lrv.lt\/lt\/naujienos\/baltarusijos-pasienyje-vsat-pareigunai-pereme-oro-balionu-atskraidintas-cigaretes-ir-sulaike-du-ju-atvaziavusius-vyrus-foto-REF\/\">reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday morning, a woman called the border checkpoint in Kena and reported seeing a balloon that had landed in a field near the village of Laukuninkai. Border guards were immediately dispatched to the scene.<\/p>\n<p>In the village, they spotted a Volkswagen Passat and, 200 meters away, a weather balloon. Night-vision equipment and two knives were found in the car. Border guards believe that the driver and passenger, aged 37 and 20, had arrived to collect the smuggled cargo.<\/p>\n<p>Cardboard boxes bearing the logo of the Neman factory were attached to the balloon. They contained 3,000 packs of cigarettes. The shipment is valued at \u20ac15,530.<\/p>\n<p>A pre-trial investigation has been launched. The suspects were questioned and released after signing written undertakings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lithuanian border guards have intercepted another weather balloon carrying Belarusian cigarettes and detained two people, the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reports. On Thursday morning, a woman called the border checkpoint in Kena and reported seeing a balloon that had landed in a field near the village of Laukuninkai. Border guards were immediately dispatched to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":596542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6ae4ec33274d5.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Another Weather Balloon Carrying Cigarettes Intercepted in Lithuania"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143094],"tags":[143247],"class_list":["post-596541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-incident","tag-kontrabanda-sigaret"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596541","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=596541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596543,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596541\/revisions\/596543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}