Raft Used To Smuggle Cigarettes

Border guards of the Pavoverė firewall of the SBGS Vilnius border team received information about a suspicious object observed in the Neris near the village of Buivydžiai I of the Vilnius district in the ice rink. SBGS officials immediately went to the specified location. It is located in the territory of Lithuania, but the Neris crosses the river with Belarus before turning into it. 

The assessment of the situation revealed that it would not be possible to pull out the cargo stuck in the ice about 30 meters from the shore without special equipment. Members of the Vilnius City 6th Team of the Fire Protection and Rescue Department (PAGD) were used to help. 

They lowered the lifebuoys into the river and, using a lifeline, pulled the cargo ashore. It turned out that these were four bundles tied with polyethylene film, in which 2 thousand. pack of cigarettes “NZ Gold” with Belarusian stamps. One of them had a hidden GPS transmitter. Such devices are used by smugglers to track the movement of cargo. There is no doubt that the raft was lowered into the Neris on the shores of Belarus in the hope that the current would bring it to the Lithuanian side. 

Here the smugglers had to pull cigarettes out of the river and transport them to the depths of Lithuania.This is not the first case where the Lithuanian border with Belarus passes about 7 kilometers in Nerimi.