Poland Detained Smuggled Belarusian Cigarettes Worth $2.5 million

A truck with glass wool tried to transport them.

Employees of the Department of National Income (KAS) from Podlasie prevented the smuggling of 653,000 packs of cigarettes. That's about $2.5 million. The smuggled cigarettes were hidden in a truck stopped for control near the Polish-Lithuanian border, reports podlaskie.kas.gov.pl.

The value of the cigarettes seized by KAS is more than 9.7 million zlotys. KAS officers from Budzisko in Podlasie stopped a Lithuanian truck for control. According to the documents, the truck was supposed to transport a batch of glass wool to Germany. The X-ray inspection found that the declared cargo was only in the back of the semi-trailer. Illegal cigarettes were hidden behind it.

The truck, driven by a 32-year-old Lithuanian citizen, contained 653 thousand packs of Belarusian cigarettes, the market value of which is 9.7 million zlotys. If the seized smuggled goods had been illegally sold, the loss to the state treasury would have been almost 16 million zlotys.

The truck driver is under investigation. The regional prosecutor's office in Suwalki is supervising the investigation. At its request, the Lithuanian citizen was temporarily detained for three months. He faces up to 10 years imprisonment.