On Monday, January 22, officials of the Indra customs control point, while conducting a physical customs control of a cargo train from Belarus, found that packs of cigarettes were hidden in the container among bags of dried milk powder. There were 20 boxes of cigarettes in the cargo. As a result of customs control, 206,600 cigarettes or 10,330 packs of 'NZ Gold' and 'Minsk' brand cigarettes with excise tax stamps of the Republic of Belarus were seized.
A day earlier on Sunday, January 21, sniffer dogs searching for tobacco products discovered smuggled cigarettes in a cargo train that had entered Latvia from Belarus and found that 27 boxes of cigarettes were hidden in the wagon with a cargo of corn. They contained 270,000 cigarettes, or 13,500 packs of NZ Gold cigarettes with excise tax stamps of the Republic of Belarus.
While some people might be surprised that cargoes such as milk powder and corn are still being shipped into the European Union from aggressor state Belarus, so far food items are not subject to EU sanctions on Belarus and Russia.
Criminal proceedings have been launched.
