January 6, Pozirk. Lithuanian border guards have intercepted a new batch of Belarusian cigarettes smuggled by weather balloons, marking the first such incident this year, the Lithuanian interior ministry reports.
The balloons were spotted early this morning in the Varėna district, near the border with Belarus. The last reported case of contraband cigarettes being smuggled by air occurred on December 20.
Lithuanian authorities launched a pre-trial investigation into the illegal handling of excise goods.
In the past few months, Vilnius reported a surge in illegal deliveries of tobacco products from Belarus by weather balloons. Last year, it intercepted 635 such balloons, according to the State Border Guard Service.
Lithuania closed all border crossings at the border with Belarus from October 29 to November 20 over a surge in overflights. Vilnius declared an “extreme situation,” a low-level emergency, on December 9 in response to what it called “a hybrid attack from Belarus.”
