Lithuania Begins Prosecution of Two Border Guards for Aiding Smuggling on Belarusian Frontier
The Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office has filed a criminal case concerning smuggling on the Lithuania-Belarus border. The case involves six accused, including two former officers of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service, the country’s General Prosecutor’s Office announced on Tuesday, 2 December.
According to information released by the General Prosecutor’s Office, the defendants managed to smuggle several batches of ‘Queen Menthol’ brand cigarettes from Belarus into Lithuania last year – a total of 33,000 packets with a value exceeding €148,000 (including taxes). The investigation alleges the detained individuals had accomplices on the Belarusian side.
In Lithuania itself, in a border area on the premises of a private house, they reportedly stored not only the contraband cigarettes but also the means for transporting them across the border – unmanned aerial vehicles, their control systems, communication equipment, and similar items, the General Prosecutor’s Office stated.
The smuggling group was apprehended following an incident on the night of 27 October last year. According to the investigation, the accused, having clearly defined their roles and acting in concert with certain «accomplices in Belarus,» used drones to transport another batch of cigarettes, marked with Belarusian excise stamps, across the state border to a pre-arranged location in Lithuania.
As investigators established, they succeeded in carrying out their plan partly due to the assistance of two Lithuanian border guards, who are now among those charged with «abuse of office,» Lithuanian broadcaster LRT reported.
According to the case materials, the accused A.N. and R.P., currently suspended from duty and at the time junior specialists of the State Border Guard Service, essentially provided cover for the smugglers. They are charged with having «ensured that officers did not attend the crime scene» on the night the smugglers were moving another batch across the border.
One of the six individuals now in the dock is also charged with the illegal possession of a firearm. Preliminary investigation data indicates the accused kept an unlicensed double-barrelled hunting rifle at his home, which was discovered and seized by law enforcement officers during a search.
According to LRT, a civil claim in this case has been filed by the State Tax Inspectorate, seeking compensation for damages caused to the state through criminal activity. The total amount of the claim exceeds €93,000.
Previously, Telegraf.news reported that in early November, Deputy State Secretary of the Belarusian Security Council, Major General Alexander Neverovsky, accused the Lithuanian authorities of facilitating cigarette smuggling into Lithuania. He noted that Lithuania and Poland have erected engineering structures in their border areas and imposed a «strict counterintelligence regime,» which is at odds with regular smuggling incidents.
Совбез Беларуси обвинил литовские власти в содействии контрабанде сигарет в Литву
For his part, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated back in October that Lithuanians themselves were responsible for launching balloons carrying contraband from Belarus into Lithuania. In his view, citizens of that country decided to make money by reselling Belarusian cigarettes, and the Lithuanian authorities, by closing the border with Belarus, themselves «pushed them down the path of crime.»
Лукашенко обвинил литовцев в запуске шаров из Беларуси в Литву — «Не вижу, за что наказывать»