According to the State Border Guard Service (VSAT), the reduction may be linked to the construction of a barrier at the border with Belarus aimed to stop illegal migration, as well as with installation of a video monitoring system, closure of 4 out of 6 border crossing points with Belarus and more efficient VSAT activities.
The agency noted that smugglers are increasingly more often attempting to transport cigarettes by air. In the first five months of 2024, 76 cases were identified of cigarette smuggling by drones, compared with 25 in the first five months of 2023.
In 19 cases, meteorological balloons were used for this in January-May 2024, while just 3 such cases were reported in 2023 and none occurred in 2022.
This year, 184,000 packs of cigarettes were intercepted as they were attempted to be flown in.
In spring 2023, striving to combat tobacco product smuggling by rail, Stasylos railway border checkpoint was closed. Since then, all trains from Belarus travel through Kena railway border checkpoint, which has an x-ray machine.
In 2022 alone, border guards discovered nearly 3 million packs of cigarettes smuggled through Stasylos, compared with just 240,000 last year.
In addition, in 20 instances cigarettes were smuggled by being floated through the Nemunas and Neris Rivers. A total of 26,000 packs of cigarettes were intercepted. In January-May 2023, there were 24 such cases.