Court extends detention of drug trafficking group leader Beglik

Vilnius Regional Court on Thursday granted a prosecutor’s request to extend by three months the detention of Sergei Beglik, who allegedly led an organised criminal group operating across three continents, LRT reported.

The court said the accused could go into hiding or commit new crimes if released. Beglik’s detention, which was due to expire on September 14, has now been extended until December 14 at the request of prosecutor Redas Savickas.

The General Prosecutor’s Office forwarded to the Vilnius Regional Court this week a case comprising nearly 240 volumes against Beglik and 12 other members of the armed criminal group.

Beglik’s lawyer asked the court to reject the prosecutor’s request and impose a non-custodial measure, citing his disability and health condition. Beglik is currently being held at the prison hospital in Pravieniškės.

The defendants face charges of organising and participating in an armed criminal group, illegally possessing very large quantities of drugs and smuggling them, possessing firearms, murder, attempted murder and legalising funds obtained through crime.

Beglik, who cannot walk after a car accident, was flown from Spain to Lithuania in March last year under a European arrest warrant.

According to the pretrial investigation, the armed criminal group operated internationally in Europe, South America and Africa. While in Spain, Beglik and Renaldas Kany, who is on Europe’s most wanted list, allegedly organised the acquisition of cocaine in South America and hashish in Africa, including Morocco, between 2014 and 2019.

The group is also accused of organising drug smuggling to Spain and transporting drugs from Spain to six countries, including Lithuania. According to the case file, the defendants illegally acquired, transported and stored at least 2.4 tonnes of cocaine and at least 6.9 tonnes of hashish between 2014 and 2019.

During the same period, the group brought nearly 674 million euros into Lithuania and other European Union countries and took almost the same amount out of them.

Officials have said the investigation was significantly delayed because a Spanish court refused for several years to surrender Beglik to Lithuanian or Polish law enforcement authorities.

Beglik was arrested in Spain in 2019 but released on 15,000 euros bail, although Poland had submitted an extradition request to the Spanish court. The extradition process failed after Beglik provided documents indicating health problems and risks that the proceedings could allegedly pose to his health.

In 2020, Lithuanian law enforcement authorities sent a new European arrest warrant to Spain’s National High Court in an effort to secure Beglik’s arrest and transfer to Lithuania. That process also failed for similar reasons.

Spanish law enforcement later determined through criminal intelligence operations that Beglik’s health was stable and allowed him to carry out normal activities. This raised reasonable doubts about earlier medical certificates claiming he had very serious health problems and had delayed a final decision on his transfer to Lithuania. Spanish authorities subsequently accelerated the court procedures for his surrender.