Lithuanian customs find €1m worth of Belarusian cigarettes in tank truck

December 9, BPN. Lithuanian customs officers at the Medininkai control point, 2 km away from the border with Belarus, found a batch of smuggled Belarusian-made cigarettes in a tank truck carrying 19 tons of liquefied gas to Russia’s Kaliningrad region, the Lithuanian finance ministry’s customs department said on its website.

During an X-ray inspection, 286,000 packs of Minsk Capital QS cigarettes worth more than €1 million were found in the tank. The driver was detained for two days, only to be released on his own recognizance.

According to a NielsenIQ study, every fifth cigarette in Lithuania has been smuggled in. Nine out of 10 come from Belarus.