On Monday, 19 October, in Madona Municipality, border guards, in cooperation with officials of the State Police, detained a Latvian citizen transporting persons who had illegally crossed the State border.
State Police officials stopped a Volkswagen vehicle on a road, driven by a Latvian citizen. Upon inspecting the vehicle, they found seven persons inside who did not possess valid travel documents, visas, or residence permits and who had previously crossed the Belarusian-Latvian border illegally.
Criminal proceedings were initiated against the “carriers” under Section 285¹, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Law for providing a large number of persons — that is, in one case more than five persons — with the possibility to illegally stay in the Republic of Latvia.
The seven persons were prevented from illegally crossing the State border in accordance with Article 4 of the State Border Guard Law.
To ensure the security of Latvia’s eastern border, Operation “VILKATIS” began on August 11. It is a targeted and coordinated Latvian response to the hybrid threat posed by the instrumentalization of illegal migration from Belarus. Its aim is to significantly reduce the number of illegal border crossings in the eastern part of Latvia and to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
The State Border Guard has already initiated 167 criminal proceedings this year for the illegal transportation of persons and/or providing persons with the opportunity to stay illegally in Latvia (of which 73 were separated from previously initiated criminal proceedings) against 117 persons. For the aforementioned actions, persons are subject to severe prison sentences. For example, in one case, a person was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment; in another case - to 6 years and 1 month.
The State Border Guard urges persons to refrain from engaging in any criminal activities related to organizing or facilitating the onward movement (transport by motor vehicle) within the European Union of persons who have illegally crossed the State border.
The sanction provided for under the relevant section of the Criminal Law stipulates a lengthy prison sentence of 2 to 10 years for the unlawful transportation of persons across the State border, as well as for organizing and carrying out other criminal activities related to illegal migration to the Republic of Latvia. The sentence may include confiscation of property or may be imposed without property confiscation, and may also include probation supervision for a period of up to three years or without it.