During the Easter holidays, border guards in cooperation with State Police officials detained two Ukrainian and one Latvian citizen for transporting persons, who had illegally crossed the state border.
On Friday, April 18, border guards noticed a suspicious Mazda 3 vehicle on the Ezernieki-Dagda road and started pursuing it, but the driver ignored the border guards' request to stop and started fleeing. A short time later, border guards, in cooperation with State Police officials, stopped a car driven by a Ukrainian citizen in the Svariņi Parish, Krāslava Municipality, as a result of a pursuit. During an inspection of the vehicle, seven persons of Asian origin without valid travel documents, valid visas and residence permits were detected inside.
On Sunday, April 20, while checking information provided by border guards, State Police officials stopped a Volkswagen Caddy vehicle driven by a Latvian citizen on the V606 road in the Dagda Parish, Krāslava Municipality. Inside the car were nine people of Asian origin without valid travel documents, as well as valid visas and residence permits.
On Monday, April 21, in the Asūne Parish, Krāslava Municipality, a border guard during off-duty hours noticed a suspicious foreign-registered minibus. State Police officials, after checking the information provided by the border guard, stopped the aforementioned Ford Transit minibus, which was driven by a Ukrainian citizen. In this case, 13 persons of Asian origin without valid visas and residence permits were detected in the minibus.
Criminal proceedings were initiated against the “carriers” under Article 285(1)3) of the Criminal Law for providing a large number of persons, i.e. at one time more than five persons, with a possibility to reside illegally in the Republic of Latvia.
29 persons were prevented from illegally crossing the state border in accordance with Cabinet Order No 184 of March 12, 2024 “Regarding Declaration of the Reinforced Operating Regime of the Border Guarding System”.