Driver gets six years for smuggling 21 people across Latvia’s border

Latgale District Court has sentenced a man to six years in prison for helping an organised group illegally move 21 people across Latvia’s border with Belarus, the prosecutor’s office told LSM.

The court also ordered his expulsion from Latvia after he serves his sentence and imposed a five-year entry ban.

The defendant responded to a Facebook advertisement seeking a driver to transport people around the European Union. After contacting members of the organised group and agreeing to take part for payment, he joined a group of at least three people whose aim was to profit by illegally moving people without the documents, visas or residence permits required to enter Latvia or another EU member state legally.

The group’s leader assigned duties, coordinated the members’ actions and gave the defendant specific instructions. His task was to rent a minibus in Lithuania, travel to a designated location in Latvia using provided coordinates, collect the people who had been brought across the border illegally and transport them to another EU member state.

In April 2026, the defendant rented a minibus in Lithuania and travelled to Istra Parish in Ludza Municipality. There he picked up 21 people who had been moved across the Latvia-Belarus border through a hole cut in the border fence. They included 19 Somali citizens, one Algerian citizen and one Moroccan citizen.

He began transporting them along the designated route, but the minibus was stopped shortly afterwards by State Border Guard officers.

The court ordered the confiscation of the mobile phone used to commit the offence and required the defendant to pay the state 7,000 euros, the value of the vehicle used.