Early on Wednesday morning, having received preliminary criminal intelligence information from the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) that a consignment of smuggled cigarettes would be thrown from a freight train travelling from the Kaliningrad region, which would later be loaded into cars, officers of the VSAT Pagėgiai Border Guard Unit’s Criminal Intelligence Division, together with colleagues from the Western Division of the Special Purpose Board “Kovas”, in cooperation with the Lithuanian Railways Competence Centre, organised a targeted detention operation.
Border guards seized a large consignment of smuggled cigarettes, the total value of which, including all taxes payable in Lithuania, exceeds 282 thousand euros.
During the operation, a Lithuanian-registered “Mercedes-Benz Vito” car, driven by a 38-year-old Vilnius resident, was stopped for inspection on the Vilnius–Kaunas–Klaipėda highway. In the cargo minivan, border guards found 45,500 packs of “NZ Gold” cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps.
During the operation, a Lithuanian-registered “Mercedes-Benz Vito” car, driven by a 38-year-old Vilnius resident, was stopped for inspection on the Vilnius–Kaunas–Klaipėda highway. In the cargo minivan, border guards found 45,500 packs of “NZ Gold” cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps.
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A pre-trial investigation into illegal possession of excise goods has been launched at the VSAT Pagėgiai Border Guard Unit, led by the prosecutor of the 3rd Criminal Prosecution Division of the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
For such a criminal act, the law provides for a fine or imprisonment for up to eight years.
The court imposed the strictest preventive measure – detention for one to two months – on three Vilnius residents who were driving “Mercedes-Benz Vito” and “Peugeot 807” cars.
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