Cigarette smuggling worth Br218.5 million to EU states prevented in Verkhnedvinsk district

September 12, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The smuggling of cigarettes worth Br218.5 million to EU countries was prevented today in the Verkhnedvinsk district, Denis Glebko, assistant head of the Polotsk border guard detachment for media relations, told a BELTA correspondent. On the night of September 11-12, servicemen of the Polotsk border guard detachment in the Verkhnedvinsk district, in cooperation with an employee of the military unit of the State Border Committee, the traffic police of the Polotsk and Verkhnedvinsk districts, the inspection of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of Novopolotsk and the Department for Combating Economic Crimes of Novopolotsk, acting on operational information, detained a GAZ-66 vehicle when the driver attempted to load a batch of cigarettes onto a passing freight train en route Polotsk-Daugavpils. As law enforcement agencies found out, 141 boxes, or 70.5 thousand packs of cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps, were intended for illegal transportation across the Belarusian-Latvian border to Latvia. The vehicle was driven by a Russian citizen residing in Novopolotsk. The estimated value of the detained cigarettes amounted to Br218.5 million. An investigation is underway to identify all persons involved in this offense. -0-