"By May 16, 2013, 140 incidents of contraband and smuggling of excise duties were recorded. The amount of smuggled cigarettes alone exceeded 1 million packs. If we compare this to the same period last year, the amount of detained cigarettes rose by 87 percent," the minister told a press conference on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Vainius Butinas, head of the State Border Guard Service, said the amount of detained cigarettes showed that the inflow of contraband from neighboring countries was "definitely not decreasing."
This year, all larger operations by Lithuanian border guards have also involved Russian and Belarusian counterparts, Butinas noted.
"I would like to draw attention to the fact that inter-institutional and international cooperation is very important," he said, noting that criminals are increasingly using more and more sophisticated ways of smuggling.
"There are vehicles which are blown up or burnt after they are detained following chases. We also detain every week self-propelled rafts with navigation systems, and they flow on their own on the rivers Neris or Nemunas," the SBGS head said.
