Authorities uncover illegal nicotine pouch factory near Kaunas

Customs Criminal Service officers, working with the European Anti-Fraud Office, have uncovered an illegal nicotine pouch factory at a company’s premises near Kaunas, LRT reported.

The Customs Criminal Service’s Kaunas division began a pre-trial investigation in April into a Lithuanian small partnership suspected of engaging in illegal economic activity and violating intellectual property rights.

During a search in mid-July, officers found a production line for making, packaging and labelling nicotine pouches. They seized more than 330,000 boxes containing nicotine pouches in about 30 varieties and flavours, with different nicotine levels and the trademarks of well-known manufacturers.

Officials also found a large quantity of finished nicotine pouches in unlabelled boxes, as well as liquids and bulk materials used in production. According to investigators, the illicit factory supplied pouches to Scandinavia, the Baltic states and the United Arab Emirates.

The pre-trial investigation is continuing under the direction of prosecutors from the third department of the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

Under Lithuania’s Law on the Control of Tobacco Products, nicotine pouches are not classified as tobacco products. However, they are treated in Lithuania as imitations of snus, a Swedish tobacco product, and their production and sale by legal entities are prohibited in the country. Nicotine found at the premises is classified as an acutely toxic substance because of its effects on health.