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A new trend of cigarette smuggling is gradually emerging: after a hiatus of several years, large consignments of illegal Russian smokers have been transported back to Lithuania in large numbers.
At the beginning of the year, customs officers at the Kybartai train station seized around half a million euros worth of cigarettes smuggled into one of the carriages, according to the Criminal Customs Service.
And early last week, on March 22, a several times larger load of Russian cigarettes was smuggled in. On that day, the patrol of the Vilnius Territorial Customs Mobile Groups stopped and inspected the cars in the vicinity of Elektrėnai.
Around 12 pm, officials on the day noticed a Daf truck parked in a bus parking lot in the village of Karkučiai. The driver, a Russian national, said that in transit from Russia’s Kaliningrad region through Lithuania he was carrying a shipment of playground parts. The truck entered Lithuania through the Kybartai roadside post.
However, an inspection of the machine revealed that his semi-trailer was blindly loaded with cigarette cases – as many as 1,200 were found. In total, the agents arrested 600,000. packages of Rominta cigarettes, whose value, including taxes, is 2 million. 256 thousand euros.
The driver was detained for two days and then released on bail and confiscation of documents.
The second truck was stopped by customs agents on Wednesday, March 24, at the Medininkai roadside post. The officers were suspected of having a “Man” cargo truck transporting a shipment of wood fibers to a Kaunas company. An X-ray inspection of the machine revealed that the cargo was equipped with caches (so-called “coffins”) filled with Belarusian NZ Gold and Queen Menthol cigarettes. A total of 100 thousand. smoking packages, their value – 348 thousand. euros.
The driver, a Belarusian citizen, was detained for two days and arrested for twenty days by decision of the Vilnius District Court on Friday.
In both cases, pre-trial investigations into smuggling have been initiated by the Vilnius Section of the Criminal Customs Service (CCS), led by the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
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