Court gives man four years for military theft and drug trafficking

A man has been sentenced to four years in prison for stealing a night-vision device from a Lithuanian military facility and trafficking very large quantities of drugs, LRT reported, citing the court.

The Panevėžys Regional Court found Vilnius district resident Andrius Stankevičius guilty of stealing the device and illegally acquiring, transporting, possessing and distributing narcotic and psychotropic substances. It also ordered the confiscation of a smartphone used in the crimes.

While on duty at the Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas Infantry Battalion, Stankevičius removed a security seal, used a spare key to enter a storage room and stole a BPS-14 night-vision device. He later sold it through Facebook.

He also acquired and distributed drugs using the encrypted messaging app Telegram. On January 27 and February 7 last year, he travelled to Utena and placed dozens of drug stashes in public locations, including parks, wooded areas, garage compounds and apartment courtyards. He photographed the stashes and sent buyers the images with their GPS coordinates.

Police found more than 5.1 grams of cocaine, 74.1 grams of 3-CMC and 53.7 grams of mephedrone (4-MMC) on him, in his car and home, and in stashes in Utena. Stankevičius admitted distributing drugs in other Lithuanian cities as well, including Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Alytus, Marijampolė, Tauragė and Palanga.

The court said the total quantity exceeded the legal threshold for a very large amount by more than a fifth. Although the Criminal Code provides a prison term of 10 to 15 years for distributing a very large quantity of drugs, the court applied provisions allowing a lighter sentence. It cited his full confession after arrest, remorse, assistance to investigators, provision of his phone passwords and compensation for the damage.

The court combined a nine-month restriction-of-liberty sentence for the theft with a four-year prison term for drug trafficking, resulting in a final sentence of four years in prison. His iPhone 12 was confiscated and handed to police, and the seized drugs will be destroyed. The ruling is not final and can be appealed to the Lithuanian Court of Appeal.