Last year, Lithuanian customs seized a record amount of smuggled cigarettes and raw tobacco.
Based on the initial estimates, almost 19 million packs of illegal cigarettes and 60 tons of raw tobacco, worth more than 73 million euros, were seized.
In 2021, the customs launched 131 pre-trial investigations into tobacco smuggling, up from 95 in 2020 and 68 in 2019.
“The composition of the cigarette smuggling flow has remained unchanged in recent years,” Lithuanian customs said in a press release. “Last year, Belarusian cigarettes produced at the Neman factory in Grodno continued to account for the largest share – 84 percent.”
In 2021, as in previous years, the bulk of smuggled cigarettes was seized at the border with Belarus.
The number of interceptions of illegal cigarette consignments transported by rail also tripled last year. Lithuanian customs intercepted 24 such consignments on trains, containing 835,000 packs of cigarettes, worth almost three million euros.
However, the bulk of the contraband continued to be transported by trucks, often in very large consignments of 250,000 to 600,000 packs of cigarettes.
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