Court to hear case against three men over balloon-borne cigarette smuggling

A court will hear a case against three Lithuanian men accused of collecting cigarettes smuggled into the country by balloon, LRT reported, citing the Prosecutor General’s Office. They are also charged with illegally possessing excise-taxable goods as part of an organised group.

The accused were born in 1985, 2001 and 2007. The man born in 2001 also faces charges of resisting a public official and possessing psychotropic substances without intent to distribute.

Investigators allege the men were working with people in Belarus and had been tasked with retrieving cigarettes delivered by balloon. On the night of March 19, they allegedly tracked balloons carrying cigarettes from Belarus into Lithuania.

Border guards detained the men that night near Makutiškės, a village in Vilnius district, as they loaded cigarette bundles into an Audi Q7. During the arrest, one man allegedly tried to flee and physically resisted an officer who ordered him to stop.

A search of the Audi Q7 he had driven found a small amount of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, a psychotropic substance, which investigators say was not intended for distribution. The bundles contained 3,000 packs of NZ Gold cigarettes bearing Belarusian excise stamps. Their total value, including taxes payable, exceeded 15,600 euros.

The maximum prison sentence for the alleged offences is four years. The case has been referred to the Vilnius District Court’s Vilnius District Chamber.