Lithuanian authorities detain 27 in balloon smuggling crackdown, including 13 officials

Lithuanian law enforcement has detained 27 people—among them 13 police and border guard officers—in a major operation targeting cigarette smuggling via meteorological balloons, public broadcaster LRT reported Friday.

Deputy Police Commissioner General Marius Draudvila confirmed at a press conference that the operation, conducted by the Criminal Police Bureau and Prosecutor General’s Office, uncovered a criminal network using GPS and encrypted communications to track and retrieve balloon-dropped contraband.

“Criminal associates used GPS devices and encrypted communications to pinpoint where the meteorological balloons landed,” Draudvila stated. “They would then collect and distribute the smuggled cigarettes.”

Authorities executed 74 searches with over 100 officers involved, seizing equipment including thermal imagers, drones, GPS transmitters, radio devices, masks, and cigarette packaging tools. The operation links to two pre-trial investigations, one of which began in December and had already resulted in multiple arrests.

Martynas Jovaiša, senior prosecutor at the Organized Crime and Corruption Investigation Department, specified that eight detained officers serve in the Šalčininkai District Police Commissariat, two in the Vilnius City Police Commissariat, and three in the State Border Guard Service. All face charges of smuggling and aiding a foreign state against Lithuania, with some accused of abusing their positions to facilitate the scheme.

Prosecutors have requested the suspension of all detained officials, some of which have already been granted, and will decide on pretrial detention measures Friday. Earlier reports indicated searches at the Šalčininkai Police Commissariat and municipal buildings, with witnesses describing the detention of a man, a woman, and the seizure of a luxury Mercedes bearing Cyrillic license plates.

Unverified sources suggest the smuggling route originated in Belarus, though officials have not confirmed the origin of the contraband.