Lithuanian customs officer fined €3,000 for allowing €2.88 million cigarette smuggling

A Lithuanian court has fined a customs officer €3,000 for failing to detect a truck carrying nearly €2.88 million worth of smuggled cigarettes, state broadcaster LRT reports.

Šarūnas Bartninkas, an officer at the Medininkai border checkpoint, was found guilty of negligence by the Vilnius Regional Court after allowing a Russian-registered truck to enter Lithuania with 702,400 packs of undeclared cigarettes. The officer had inspected X-ray scans of the vehicle, which was declared to be carrying aluminium composite materials, but failed to identify discrepancies that colleagues later described as “highly suspicious.”

Specialists testifying in court stated that the X-ray images lacked typical metallic characteristics and instead showed organic material consistent with tobacco products. “The image did not match the declared aluminium composite sheets, as it lacked metal-specific features and appeared overly homogeneous,” one expert told the court. The truck was later stopped in Poland, where the cigarettes—branded with Belarusian tax stamps—were seized.

Investigators determined the same shipment had been unloaded in a Vilnius warehouse before being transferred to the Polish truck. Security footage confirmed the reloading process. The court ruled that Bartninkas, who had worked in customs for 19 years, acted with “criminal negligence” by not recognising the smuggling attempt. He denied wrongdoing, insisting no prohibited goods were present during his inspection.

Mantas Kaušilas, director of Lithuania’s Customs Criminal Service, stated that Bartninkas had been suspended pending the verdict and would face dismissal once the ruling takes effect. “We monitor our own employees, assess risks, and actively prevent corruption or misconduct,” Kaušilas said. The officer has 20 days to appeal the decision.

The seized cigarettes included 156,800 packs of Minsk Super Slims, 138,400 packs of 5 Minsk Super Slims, 156,000 packs of Queen Menthol, and 251,200 packs of NZ Gold. The total tax evasion, including mandatory duties, amounted to €2,882,000.