On Thursday, April 16, border guards stopped the illegal movement of cigarettes across the Latvia–Belarus state border and pulled a raft with contraband cigarettes from the Daugava River. This is already the second such raft found within a week.
While performing their duties in Piedruja Parish, Krāslava Municipality, a border guard shift noticed a suspicious object floating along the current of the Daugava. Using a State Border Guard motorboat and inspecting the border along the river, the border guards discovered two tractor tire inner tubes containing packages wrapped in black polyethylene film. Upon inspection, they found 62 060 “NZ Gold Superslim” cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps.
The cigarettes were handed over to State Police officials, who initiated criminal proceedings under Chapter XIX of the Criminal Law.
It has already been reported that over the previous weekend, on April 10, border guards pulled a similar type of raft from the Daugava River containing 66 120 “NZ Gold” cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps.