On May 16 and May 18, two “carriers” of persons who illegally crossed the State border have been detained in the Augšdaugava and Krāslava Municipalities.
On Saturday, May 16, State Police officials stopped an Opel vehicle on a road in Skrudaliena Parish, driven by a citizen of Georgia. Then, on Monday, May 18, police officials stopped a Citroen vehicle in Ezernieki Parish, driven by a citizen of Estonia. During inspections of the vehicles in both cases, it was established that in each vehicle were five persons of Asian origin without valid travel documents, visas, or residence permits, who had previously illegally crossed the Belarus–Latvia border.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated against the “carriers” under Section 285.1, Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Law for knowingly providing a person with the possibility to stay illegally in the Republic of Latvia, if such a possibility was provided to two or more persons. The Georgian citizen has also been recognized as a suspect under Section 285, Paragraph 3¹ of the Criminal Law for the illegal transportation of persons across the State border, if committed during the enhanced border surveillance regime or during a State of emergency declared due to a threat to the inviolability of the State border, regardless of where in the territory of Latvia the offense was committed. A security measure — detention in custody — has been applied to the person.
10 persons were prevented from illegally crossing the State border in accordance with Section 4 of the State Border Guard Law.
The State Border Guard is operating under the enhanced border surveillance regime. Support to the Border Guard is being provided by the National Armed Forces, the State Police, as well as colleagues from Finland within the framework of bilateral cooperation.
This year, the State Border Guard has already initiated 40 criminal proceedings (9 of which were separated from previously initiated criminal proceedings) against 32 persons for the illegal transportation of persons and/or providing persons with the possibility to stay illegally in Latvia. By comparison, during the entirety of last year, 122 criminal proceedings (50 of which were separated from previously initiated criminal proceedings) were initiated against 88 persons for identical activities. Persons committing such offenses are punished with severe prison sentences. For example, in one case a person was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months of imprisonment; in another case — to 6 years and 1 month.