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According to forensic customs scientists, the Vertelga shadow is in a hurry to fill the “deficit” of illegal smokers that has formed in Lithuania in recent weeks. For some time, the flow of cigarette smuggling from Belarus has weakened somewhat, and the price of a pack of cigarettes on the Lithuanian black market has risen to EUR 1.9 (in July it was EUR 1.7). But last week, customs officials seized up to three trucks with large shipments of cigarettes.
The first truck with illegal cargo crashed into customs officers on August 24, when a Renault Magnum, driven by a Belarusian citizen, arrived at the Medininkai roadside post. The latter claimed to be transporting cargo of wood, but after inspecting the machine with an X-ray monitoring system, customs officials suspected that the smoke could be hidden in the construction of the tractor semitrailer. Due to the complex loading work, the wood was not unloaded from the machine until August 26. Then it turned out that the floor was indeed equipped with hiding places, where there were more than 6 thousand. NZ and Minsk cigarette packs.
An illegal shipment was stopped and a pre-trial investigation into this smuggling was launched in the Vilnius Section of the Criminal Customs Service, led by the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office. The preventive detention measure for the tractor driver is a cash deposit, which is counted in a statement issued by the representative of the Criminal Customs Service for public relations Gediminas Kulikauskas on Wednesday.
The Renault Magnum tractor was allegedly carrying a load of plasterboard. Customs officials were again assisted by X-rays.
On the same day, August 26, another cargo truck (Renault Magnum) was allegedly stopped at the Medininkai roadside stand, which was allegedly transporting a load of plasterboard. The customs officials were again assisted by an X-ray, with the help of which it was established that the plaster sheets were an imitation of the entire cargo – the cigarettes were hidden inside. The decommissioning of the cargo has not yet been completed, but the trucker estimates that the truck should be at least 350 thousand. Fest cigarette pack. Its value, including mandatory taxes, is approximately 1.2 million. euros.
The tractor driver was detained and then arrested for a month by decision of the Vilnius City District Court. The pre-trial investigation carried out by the officers of the Vilnius section of the MKT is controlled by the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
The third machine, a MAN truck, was inspected by customs officials on August 27, at approximately 10 pm in the afternoon. A Belarusian citizen driving a truck said he was transporting a load of metal girders to a Vilnius building materials company. However, the officers only had to shine flashlights to locate the smoking packages between the metal posts.
It turned out that the hiding places were formed from metal beams, the so-called “coffins”, in which, according to preliminary estimates, about 112 thousand. packages of Belarusian cigarettes “Minsk”, the value of which, including taxes, is about 400 thousand. euros.
Officials from the Kaunas section of the MKT also launched a pre-trial investigation into this incident, which is led by the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office. The MAN driver was arrested for three months and customs forensics searched the Vilnius building materials company, which was transporting a load of metal poles. One of the company’s employees, who was in preventive detention, was interviewed: he took a document and promised in writing not to leave.
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