Latvian police report cross-border cigarette production network
Sunday 9th August 2026 on 08:30 in
Latvia
Criminal groups in Latvia and neighbouring countries continue to cooperate in producing and circulating components for illegal cigarettes and distributing the finished products, Latvia’s Tax and Customs Police told the LETA news agency, LSM reported.
Illegal cigarette production has become widespread in recent years not only in Latvia but across the European Union, the police said. The agency cited research by global data and analytics company Nielsen, as well as the large illegal cigarette factories uncovered by Latvian law enforcement agencies over the past two years.
The recent seizure of a shipment of cigarettes by Lithuanian customs is another indication of the trend, the Tax and Customs Police said. Law enforcement agencies in Latvia and internationally are working proactively to prevent such criminal activity by regularly exchanging analytical information and cooperating closely.
Several large criminal cases involving illegal cigarette production and the circulation of raw materials intended for production have been opened and are being investigated by the Tax and Customs Police over the past year.
In these cases, authorities have seized large quantities of illegally produced cigarettes and the raw materials and materials needed for the full production cycle, including tobacco, film, foil, paper, glue, cigarette filters, cigarette-pack blanks and cigarette-carton packaging blanks.
The agency declined to comment, citing the interests of the investigation, on whether the shipment detained by Lithuanian customs was connected to the illegal factory recently uncovered and shut down in Grobiņa.
Lithuanian customs said on Thursday that officers had detained a truck arriving from Latvia. Its semi-trailer contained about 500,000 packs of illegal cigarettes worth 2.4 million euros. The service said it was the largest seizure of smuggled cigarettes carried out by Lithuanian customs this year and that the tobacco products were believed to have been made in clandestine factories in Latvia.