On Sunday, meteorological balloons arriving from Belarus with contraband cigarettes were also discovered in Latvia, Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis said in an interview with the TV3 program "900 seconds," reports LETA.
The minister explained that in the case of Latvia, unlike Lithuania, this situation does not pose a serious threat to critical infrastructure, as there are no airports near the border. However, he stated that if a cargo with illegal cigarettes falls, it could cause local damage due to its weight.
From Saturday evening to Sunday morning, Latvian internal affairs services managed to intercept seven such balloons carrying contraband that had arrived from Belarus. Each of them contained an average of about 60,000 illegal cigarettes.
"The work continues, the volumes are still being clarified, but this phenomenon is indeed taking place," said Kozlovskis.
The minister urged residents who notice such balloons in border areas not to wait for them to land and not to attempt to shoot them down themselves, but to immediately report to the responsible services so that the crime can be prevented safely and effectively, without allowing contraband goods to enter the illegal market in Latvia.
Kozlovskis added that Latvian internal affairs services are closely cooperating with their colleagues from Lithuania and Poland, and several meetings have already taken place to exchange experiences on how to counter this phenomenon of meteorological balloons.
As previously reported, in recent months, meteorological balloons carrying contraband cigarettes arriving from Belarus have created serious problems for the operation of Lithuanian airports. Due to the threat to civil aviation, Vilnius Airport had to be closed several times.
Given that Lithuania did not see any willingness from Minsk to address the situation, it was decided at the end of October to close the two remaining border control points with Belarus for a month. However, on Wednesday, the Lithuanian government decided to open the checkpoints in Mėdininkai and Šalčininkai earlier than planned.
