A Record Shipment Of "Belarusian" Cigarettes Was Seized In Lithuania

The excise stamps could have been counterfeited.

In Lithuania, near Marijampolė, customs officials stopped a truck in which they found 396,000 packs of Winston Blue cigarettes bearing Belarusian excise stamps. The value of the shipment, including taxes, exceeds two million euros. Law enforcement officials suspect that the cigarettes may have been manufactured at an illegal factory in Latvia, reports the Lithuanian Customs Criminal Service.

The DAF truck was stopped on November 9 at around 7:00 p.m. Minsk time on the Via Baltica highway. The driver, a Lithuanian citizen, claimed he was transporting industrial boilers to Germany. However, during an inspection of the semi-trailer, customs officers discovered boxes of cigarettes and seized them. The count was completed the following day: there were 792 boxes in the truck, or 396,000 packs.

According to customs officials, the cigarettes may have been manufactured at an illegal factory in Latvia, where the Belarusian excise stamps were also counterfeited.

Customs officials noted that this is one of the largest shipments of illegal cigarettes seized in the country in 2026.

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