Police arrest five in Dzūkija balloon-smuggling operation

Lithuanian police arrested five people in an operation against a criminal group suspected of smuggling cigarettes by weather balloon in Dzūkija, LRT reported. The Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau said the operation was carried out on Wednesday with prosecutors from the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office and officers from the Aras Anti-Terrorist Operations Unit.

The suspects are linked to a criminal association active in the municipalities of Alytus, Druskininkai, Varėna and Lazdijai. Police conducted 16 searches at the suspects’ homes and other premises, seizing items relevant to the pre-trial investigation and equipment allegedly used to commit crimes.

Those arrested include the association’s alleged leaders and organisers. They have been notified of suspicions relating to establishing, organising, participating in and leading a criminal association; smuggling; illegal possession of excise goods; and helping another state act against Lithuania.

Police described the group as an organised, strictly structured system in which members or teams had assigned roles. To conceal their activities, members allegedly used encrypted communications and counter-surveillance measures, deleted communications from electronic devices, hid potential evidence and used separate vehicles to organise and carry out smuggling.

Investigators suspect the group’s leaders maintained direct contact with accomplices in Belarus, who arranged the centralised mass launch of weather balloons carrying contraband into Lithuania when weather conditions were favourable.

Authorities have restricted the suspects’ ownership rights to luxury vehicles seized during searches, with the aim of securing compensation for damage to the state and possible confiscation of assets. Investigators will also examine the origin of the suspects’ assets and whether their income could have enabled them to acquire them.

The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation by the Criminal Police Bureau and prosecutors from the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office’s Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation Division. In a large-scale operation on May 19, police arrested 27 people linked to two criminal associations suspected of balloon-based smuggling, helping another state act against Lithuania and other crimes. More than 140 officers took part in that operation, and some of those arrested were police and border guard officers suspected of abuse of office.