Lithuanian court fines six in drone cigarette smuggling case

A court in Kaunas has fined six people for smuggling cigarettes from Belarus into Lithuania, including two border guards who helped the operation by ensuring patrols were absent, LRT reported, citing the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The Kaunas Regional Court fined the defendants between €17,200 and €24,900. The two State Border Guard Service (VSAT) officers were also convicted of abuse of office. One other defendant was convicted of illegally possessing a firearm.

The investigation found that on the night of October 27, 2024, the group worked with accomplices in Belarus to fly cigarettes across the border by drone to an agreed location in Lithuania. In several deliveries, they brought in 33,000 packs of Queen Menthol cigarettes bearing Belarusian excise stamps. Their value, including taxes due, was €148,000.

According to the case, accomplices in Belarus and Lithuania followed a plan that included finding a homestead to store the cigarettes and acquiring drones, control equipment and communications gear. The two VSAT junior specialists, identified as A.N. and R.P., ensured that no patrols were operating at the location that night.

VSAT’s internal investigations officers uncovered the scheme and detained those involved, with assistance from officers in the Varėna Border Guard Unit’s investigation division and the Vilnius team of its then Special Operations Division.

During a search of the homestead, officers found and seized a hunting double-barrelled shotgun that one accomplice had kept without a permit. The court fined the two border guards €21,900 and €22,200 respectively and barred both from working as civil servants or in equivalent roles for four years. The verdict may be appealed to the Lithuanian Court of Appeal.