The amount of smuggled cigarettes detained by Lithuanian border guards has almost quadrupled in the first three months of this year, the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) said in a statement on Wednesday.
Between January and March, border guards intercepted over 1.6 million packs of smuggled cigarettes in Lithuania, which is almost four times more than in the same period last year, when 435,834 packs were intercepted, and five times more than in the first quarter of 2020, when 332,371 packets were intercepted.
Smugglers are increasingly using border waterways as well as drones, the VSAT said. The number of cigarettes transported by freight trains from Belarus has also increased this year.
Almost all, 99 percent, of the smuggled cigarettes seized by the border guards come directly from Belarus.
According to the VSAT, Belarus is directly engaged in smuggling, diverting surplus production of its Neman facilities to the black market..
Belarusian tobacco factories continue to maintain high production volumes and they are likely to increase further, Lithuania’s border guards say, adding that smuggling volumes are not expected to go down.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
