{"id":167014,"date":"2025-12-05T16:00:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/167014\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"latvian-police-recover-two-weather-balloons-with-smuggled-cigarettes","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/167014\/","title":{"rendered":"Latvian police recover two weather balloons with smuggled cigarettes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

December<\/strong> 5, Pozirk<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong> Latvian border police on December 3 recovered weather balloons with smuggled Belarusian cigarettes as neighboring Lithuania prepares to declare a state of emergency next week over smuggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One balloon seized in the Aug\u0161daugava municipality delivered 31,800 NZ cigarettes, and additional 31,200 were attached to the other one, found in the L\u012bv\u0101ni municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police have launched a criminal investigation into large-scale smuggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NZ cigarettes cost an equivalent of around \u20ac1 at stores in Belarus, and are significantly cheaper than legally sold cigarettes in Latvia and Lithuania, where prices start at around \u20ac5. Smuggled NZ can be bought at \u20ac2 per pack in Vilnius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Lithuania is set to declare a state of emergency next week as balloon incursions from Belarus continue to disrupt operations at Vilnius International Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo make it easier for combined groups to work, specialists have taken the decision that the state and form of a state of emergency is best suited today. I listen to their opinion,\u201d lrt.lt<\/em> quoted Prime Minister Inga Ruginien\u0117 as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cabinet is working on the legal framework, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lithuanian police retrieved within a week 19 weather balloons used by cigarette smugglers, seizing 35,000 packs of cigarettes, ELTA<\/em> reported yesterday quoting Police Commissioner General Ar\u016bnas Paulauskas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police pulled over more than 4,500 vehicles and checked about 5,700 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, Lithuanian Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovi\u010d said that nearly 600 cigarette-smuggling weather balloons and 197 drones had been spotted in Lithuania since January, with tensions rising significantly since October. The incidents disrupted hundreds of flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vilnius is looking forward to the arrival of the NATO support group for repelling hybrid attacks, Lithuanian Foreign Minister K\u0119stutis Budrys told NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in a phone call yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minsk is not combating smugglers and is deliberately attacking Vilnius Airport with contraband balloons in order to disrupt its operations, Budrys said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Poland, police arrested a Pole and a Belarusian near Bia\u0142a Podlaska, seizing Z\u0142100,000 ($27,500) worth of cigarettes smuggled from Belarus from their vehicle. The two were charged with smuggling. The charge carries punishment from a fine to up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Belarusian man has been ordered to leave Poland and banned from entering the country for five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n
\n \"\"