“I would not like to name the number (how many groups are left – BNS), because the investigation is still ongoing, but the work with not all groups is finished, and I believe that in the next month or two we will still have certain results,” the police chief said on Thursday on the LRT show “Dienos tema”.
He stated that during the investigation of illegal cigarette smuggling from Belarus, a dozen smuggler groups were identified, and most of their members were detained.
“The investigation is still ongoing, it is not yet finished, and we will have more realizations in the future. Perhaps not as high-profile, with fewer people, but the fight is not over yet,” said A. Paulauskas.
Law enforcement refers to the active phase following secret investigative actions and information analysis as “realization,” during which suspects are detained, searches are conducted, and material evidence is seized.
As BNS wrote, in the second half of May, 27 individuals associated with the smuggling of two criminal organizations using hot air balloons were detained in various regions of Lithuania.
Among those detained are 13 police officers and border guards, and one official from the Šalčininkai district municipality. Law enforcement links them to a group operating in the municipalities of Vilnius, Šalčininkai, Varėna, and Druskininkai districts.
A. Paulauskas did not rule out that more police or State Border Guard Service officers might be detained.
According to the Commissioner General, the cooperation between police officers and smugglers “probably went on for many years, only with varying intensity.”
“Smugglers probably exploited officers as much as it was profitable for them to do so and as much as they needed the officers’ help,” A. Paulauskas told the public broadcaster.
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According to him, police officers of the Šalčininkai district police station were unaware of their colleagues’ possible crimes, and therefore internal police prevention failed to prevent them.
“I saw surprise in the officers’ eyes. It seemed to be genuine surprise that their colleagues, with whom they sometimes worked in the same crew or office, jointly investigated certain criminal acts, were involved in smuggling networks. Apparently, this is why the preventive activities of the Immunity Board did not work,” said the police chief.
According to A. Paulauskas, since the end of last year, when a joint investigation group was formed and law enforcement’s fight against cigarette smuggling from Belarus by air intensified, 75 individuals have been detained, 28 of whom are currently arrested.
“It’s probably more cooperation than leadership. That’s how I would describe the relationship between Lithuanian and Belarusian smugglers,” said the Commissioner General, when asked which side leads the illegal cigarette transportation.
BNS announced that in the pre-trial investigation, in which officers were also detained, there are a total of 49 suspects, and their assets worth 4.2 million euros have been seized. The individuals are suspected of smuggling, possession of illegal tobacco products, and aiding another state in acting against Lithuania within a criminal organization.
According to A. Paulauskas, during interrogations, suspects usually state that their main goal was to profit from cigarette smuggling.
Meteorological balloons carrying them from Belarus disrupted the work of Lithuanian airports a dozen times, and the country’s leaders consider these actions a hybrid attack by Minsk.
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