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He emphasized that, even with limited human resources and budget, the Border Guard can successfully battle contraband. During the first half-year, the Border Guard detained four times more smugglers at the so-called "green border" than in the same period last year and five times more than in the entire 2008 altogether, writes LETA.

At the "green border", or the areas in between checkpoints, the Border Guard has discovered 32 contraband cases, but at the border checkpoints – 581. For example, in six months of 2008 at the border checkpoints 35 contraband cases were discovered.

60 cases involved caches of tobacco products in various motor vehicles. From the total number of 5.8 million contraband cigarettes confiscated by the Border Guard, 785,785 cigarettes were transported over the "green border".

Garbars, speaking about the budget and personnel of the Border Guard, noted that there are 83 vacancies for inspectors at eastern border at the moment, but only about 40 new inspectors graduate from the Border Guard College each year. Because of the limited budget the Border Guard cannot train more inspectors.