Balloon with smuggled goods from Belarus lands at Lithuanian border checkpoint
A weather balloon with smuggled cigarettes at a Lithuanian border crossing / vsat.lrv.lt
Smugglers tried to smuggle 1,250 packs of cigarettes from the territory of Belarus to Lithuania using a weather balloon, but the balloon with the cargo landed right at the active border crossing at Šalčininkai, the Lithuanian Border Guard Service reports.
The Lithuanian Border Guard suggested that the smugglers "lacked the specific knowledge to use such an unguided balloon to deliver the cargo to the planned place." In addition to a package of cigarettes (1,250 packs of NZ Gold Super Slims with Belarusian labels), two GPS devices were attached to the weather balloon. They were probably were likely intended for the recipients of the goods in Lithuania to determine the exact location of the cargo.
Lithuanian border guards noted earlier that the tightening of border controls had led to smugglers using weather probes to smuggle cigarettes. In the first five months of this year, 19 such shipments were intercepted. By comparison, in 2023, only 3 meteoprobes were found with smuggled cigarettes launched from Belarus.
