The number of illegal Belarusian cigarettes found on trains was as high as in the past 7 years.
The scale of Belarusian cigarettes smuggled through Lithuania is growing at a record pace, Director General of Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania, Darius Žvironas, told the news agency BNS.
In the three quarters of 2021, Lithuanians seized 328 million smuggled cigarettes, compared to 297 million in 2020.
This year, 16.7 million cigarettes were seized on the railroad alone, twice as many as last year. Cigarettes were usually hidden in bulk cargoes, among fertilizers and crushed stone, in wood. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that there is no X-ray equipment at some stations.
Of all smuggled cigarettes, 84% were produced in Belarus. Illegal cigarettes account for a quarter of the cigarette market in Lithuania. This is seen in Lithuania as a threat to security and a source of funding for Alyaksandr Lukashenka‘s regime.
belsat.eu
