Smuggling cigarettes with gas balloons, closed Lithuanian airport –

The main airport of Lithuania was closed due to the illegal smuggling of cigarettes by gas balloons from Belarus. Authorities were forced to close the airport for several hours after a gas balloon carrying thousands of packs of cigarettes entered the skies over the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. As a result, more than 6 thousand passengers suffered.

Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center (NCMC) said at least 25 gas balloons entered Lithuanian airspace from bordering Belarus, including two that landed directly over the airport.

Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service said at least 11,000 packs of illegal cigarettes were recovered from the balloons. More balloons are expected to be found. So far this year, 544 balloons from Belarus have entered Lithuanian skies. Last year this number was 966.

Apart from Lithuania, more than 100 cases of such trafficking have also been detected in Podlaskie region in northeastern Poland. Last month, the police arrested a Belarusian national whose mobile GPS tracker of the balloon was found.

The country’s aviation authorities have commented that there has been an ‘airspace violation’ in such an incident.

According to experts, smugglers are using gas balloons as they are much cheaper than drones.

Source: BBC
KM