Baltic States – CIS, Legislation, Lithuania, Markets and Companies, Transport

Illegal cigarettes comprise the largest share of the seized smuggled goods. Over 160 million pieces of them, estimated at EUR 19 million euro, were confiscated. This is three times more than during the same period of the previous year: 60 million pieces of cigarettes worth over EUR 6 million euro were detained at that time, Lithuanian Customs report.

The data of the State Tax Inspectorate also confirms the reduction of the illegal tobacco market share in Lithuania: in the first half of 2015, cigarette sales in the legal market increased by 7%.

Unlike the last few years, when the largest quantities of tobacco products were detained on the Lithuanian – Belarusian border, the Lithuanian customs officers increasingly often detain this year illegal Belarus tobacco products brought from Latvia. According to the Deputy Director General of the Customs Department Vygantas Paigozinas, such change of smuggling routes took place upon strengthening the control on the European Union external border.

As in previous years, close attention is paid at the Lithuanian Customs to the prevention of drug smuggling. In the first half of this year, customs criminologists started 41 pre-trial investigation of drug smuggling. The officers detained 220 kilograms of hashish and nearly 10 kilograms of various other drugs, as well as 759 tablets and 129 ampoules of medicines containing psychotropic substances.

The customs criminologists, in active co-operation with other Lithuanian law enforcement authorities and through participation in international operations, seized significant quantities of drugs also outside Lithuania, in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries. Huge shipments of hashish as well as amphetamine and metamphetamine were seized there with the help of the Lithuanian officers in 2015, Lithuanian Customs said.