The cigarettes arrived again
The cigarettes arrived again. Once again, the authorities pretend to be fighting successfully.
Balloons with contraband cigarettes were intercepted in Lithuania. Seven shipments per day, almost 13 thousand packages, two detainees. Technically— it's a success. In fact, it's another episode of a long—running TV series.
The detainees are probably Lithuanian citizens. And those who send goods from Belarus are not abstract "hostile forces", but the same network of smugglers operating on both sides of the border. The passport is secondary here. This is not politics, but business, and it is well-established and has long been familiar to the border guards.
The numbers confirm this. In 2025, there will be 635 such flights. In 2024 - 226. In 2023 — units. In other words, this is not a splash or a sensation, but a stable scheme that everyone has long been accustomed to. An emergency situation due to the "cylinders" has already been declared, the airport was stopped - and cylinders are still there.
That is, instead of a systematic fight against smuggling — with logistics, recipients, and financial flows — the story is presented each time as a geopolitical incident. The threat from Belarus, pressure, "hybrid attacks" — and so on in a circle. Although everything on earth is much more prosaic: some launch, others meet, and others sell.
Smuggling is not defeated by statements and press releases. It is defeated harshly, boringly, and without slogans — by hitting existing networks, not balloons in the sky. In the meantime, it all looks like an endless ritual: cigarettes have arrived, a report has been written, a tick has been ticked. And a week later, again.
Source: Telegram "tenipribaltiki"