Two men charged over 2 million euro cigarette smuggling from Latvia

LRT reported that prosecutors have sent a criminal case to court against two men accused of illegally storing and transporting cigarettes worth more than 2 million euros from Latvia to Lithuania.

The case was prepared by a prosecutor at the Šiauliai Regional Prosecutor’s Office. The investigation was conducted by officers from the Pagėgiai Border Guard Unit of Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service.

According to prosecutors, E. M. instructed D. T. to transport the cigarettes from Latvia in a truck and accompanied him in another vehicle, monitoring the surroundings and the road.

D. T. collected a semi-trailer left at an agreed location in Latvia. It contained 300,000 packs of cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps and 180,000 packs without excise stamps. Their combined value exceeded 2 million euros.

State Border Guard Service officers from the Pagėgiai unit stopped the truck carrying the shipment in Lithuania.

Both men have been charged with illegally possessing and transporting excise goods, an offence punishable by a fine or up to eight years in prison.

Investigators also found that D. T. forged genuine cargo transport documents by signing them and confirming false information. The documents stated that Latvian companies had sent the cargo, although the companies had not actually shipped it.

D. T. has also been charged with forgery or possession of a forged document. The offence is punishable by community service, a fine, restriction of liberty, arrest or up to three years in prison.

The case has been sent to the Panevėžys Regional Court.