Border guards seize three more balloon-borne cigarette shipments

Lithuanian border guards intercepted three cigarette shipments flown from Belarus by balloons and detained a man suspected of coming to collect them, LRT reported. The operations yielded 12,047 packs of cigarettes, worth more than 66,000 euros including taxes payable in Lithuania.

The shipments were intercepted in the Šalčininkai, Lazdijai and Alytus districts. Each had a GPS transmitter attached to help smugglers track its location. The cigarettes, bearing Belarusian tax stamps, were branded NZ Gold and Minsk 5 Superslims. Border guards seized them on Tuesday morning and shortly before midnight going into Wednesday.

A pre-trial investigation into the illegal handling of excise goods was launched after the detention of a 28-year-old man from Trakai district, identified in the report as a Lentvaris resident. Material relating to the other incidents has been added to ongoing investigations led by prosecutors in Vilnius and Kaunas.

The State Border Guard Service of Lithuania said 193 balloon-borne cigarette shipments from Belarus had been intercepted so far this year, compared with 635 in 2025 and 226 in 2024. There were no such cases in 2022 and three attempts in 2023. The service said the number of attempts had fallen by about three times this year after Lithuania introduced measures to combat balloon smuggling.

This year, border guards have detained 71 people suspected of links to cigarette smuggling by balloon from Belarus and 31 people linked to smuggling by drone. They have also brought down 70 drones carrying illegal cigarettes. The corresponding drone totals were 59 in 2025 and 54 in 2024. In Poland, 217 balloon-borne smuggling shipments have been intercepted this year, according to the service.