On the morning of the same day, border guards from Kuźnica found another cargo in the Klimówka area. As stated in the announcement, The “package” was attached to two balloons and contained three thousand packs of cigarettes. This type of transport – also in the amount of 1.5 thousand parcels – were also seized by officers from the Border Guard station in Nowy Dwór.
The Border Guard announced that the detained people would face charges. Activities are being carried out to identify the remaining participants of the procedure responsible for sending and receiving illegal shipments. According to the services, total the value of the packages revealed on Monday exceeds 100,000. zloty.
Smugglers use balloons
This is not the first time that smugglers use balloons arriving from Belarus. At the beginning of November, a drone transporting approximately 400 packs of cigarettes with Belarusian excise duty also fell in the Krynki commune. Data from this year show the scale of the phenomenon: the Podlasie Border Guard Branch recorded 118 cases of cigarette smuggling using weather balloons and 18 cases using drones.
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The estimated value of the disclosed goods amounts to PLN 3.4 million, and a total of 29 people were detained in connection with this practice.
The phenomenon also has a supra-regional dimension. Since the end of October, dozens of Belarusian weather balloons have arrived in Lithuania, causing temporary paralysis of local airports. In response, the Lithuanian authorities decided to close two border crossings with Belarus until November 30.
The Center for Eastern Studies estimates that balloons have become one of the tools of the ongoing hybrid war. Experts indicate that trade in tobacco products – including cross-border smuggling – has been controlled for years by Alexander Lukashenko's inner circle and brings significant profits.
Monday's detentions and seizures of cargo show that smugglers are still looking for silent methods of delivering goods that are difficult to detect early. At the same time, the actions of officers in the border area – from Kuźnica through Klimówka to Nowy Dwór – confirm that the Polish services remain constantly ready to neutralize further transfer attempts.
