Officers detained five people, including three arrested, and seized around 90 kilos of various drugs, including cocaine, amphetamine, marihuana, hashish, the Lithuanian Customs announced on Wednesday.
Drugs were shipped from the Netherlands via Lithuania to Russia. Criminals established two international cargo shipping companies for the purpose.
Officers say the gang was particularly sly as their trucks were often made into „Russian dolls“, i.e., illegal cargo was covered with one type of legal goods, and after additional search, officers would find more caches with drugs.
That was the case last September when a truck trying to enter Belarus from Lithuania was stopped at Lavoriškės check-point. 85 packs of various clothes, worth LTL 430,000 (EUR 125,000), were found under the shipment of apples.
After a pre-trial investigation was launched and additional search was carried out, 15 kilos of hashish and 58 kilos of high-purity cocaine (80 percent), worth around LTL 1 million on the black market, were found in caches.
As the pre-trial investigation continued, officers started investigating a shipping company registered in Trakai District, southeastern Lithuania, and stopped another truck last December, where they found 52 kilos of hashish and 11 kilos of marihuana inside. The drugs were worth LTL 1.6-2.5 million on the black market.
More drugs were later found in a truck carrying Christmas trees from the Netherlands to Lithuania.
Officers say that Lithuanian criminals would put hashish, marihuana, hashish, and amphetamine into one shipment and then send to Russia in smaller shipments hidden under legal goods.
Trucks would not return empty from Russia either, as they would smuggle cigarettes to Lithuania. One of these trucks was stooped in Latvia, and 100 boxes of Belorussian cigarettes were found inside. Another truck with 45 boxes of contraband cigarettes was detained in Lithuania.
After Lithuanian officers closed the above-mentioned company, criminals immediately established another one, but it failed to start operations.
In May, searches were carried out in suspects' homes and workplaces in Senieji Trakai. 4.8 kilos of amphetamine were found in an old Volvo truck.
Five people were detained. The court later sanctioned arrest of three, another two were questioned and released.
The gang leader with previous convictions for serious crimes is well-known to the Lithuanian police.
All drugs seized during the investigation are wroth around LTL 3.5 million (one million euros).
