On Monday, 10 August, in the Skrudaliena Parish of Augšdaugava Municipality, border guards detected 15 persons who had illegally crossed the State border from Belarus through an underground tunnel.
Officials of the State Border Guard, in cooperation with officials of the State Police, a dog handler of the Lithuanian Border Guard and a Rapid Response Unit, carried out operational measures and verified the information received, as a result of which 15 persons who had illegally crossed the State border were detected. Continuing the inspection of the scene and clarifying the circumstances of the persons’ illegal crossing of the State border, border guards discovered an underground tunnel in the area under the responsibility of the Silene Border Guard Unit, 10 metres from the fence. The border guards had previously received operational information about the construction of a tunnel in this area of responsibility.
This is the first case in which a tunnel has been used to illegally cross the State border into Latvia. No indications of a violation had previously been detected at this particular location, and no persons who had illegally crossed the State border had previously been detained there.
The 15 persons were prevented from illegally crossing the State border in accordance with Section 4 of the State Border Guard Law and were returned to the country of departure.