The border guards were conducting off-duty training in Krāslava county, approximately 500 meters from the state border, when they noticed a Ford Transit van loaded with timber with several people standing next to it. Seeing the border guards, these people quickly disappeared towards the border with Belarus.
A service dog followed the trail to a previously cut hole in a border fence. Turning their attention to the van and its driver, it quickly became apparent to border guards that there was something not quite right about its cargo of wooden joists and boards beneath a tarapilin and spare wheels. An inspection discovered that the cargo bay housed a secret compartment.
The driver was a Georgian citizen and lacked the required identity documents and special permission to be in a border protection zone. Furthermore, the vehicle lacked mandatory civil liability insurance.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated against a Georgian citizen for a deliberate attempt to provide a person with the opportunity to stay illegally in the Republic of Latvia, and could potentially face a prison sentence of from two to eight years if found guilty.
"In the past week, this was already the second case when the violator tried to transport migrants in an imaginative way, but this time too the border guards were more attentive and skillful," said the State Border Guard.
It has already been reported that last Tuesday, August 20, a non-citizen of Latvia was arrested for transporting 24 persons who illegally crossed the state border hidden in what looked like a van carrying firewood.
