To increase the mobility of the officers on duty, the Silene Border Guard department has received four of the new vehicles to handle its posts. One is appropriate for transport orders, another as a workhorse in clearing out border-zone underbrush, another just for the canine unit (besides state-of-the-art animal transport cages for all vehicles). All are equipped with proper basic forest management equipment and all essential tools, related Daugavpils department chief Oļegs Jemašovs.
“We caught 28 violators using these service dogs, accounted for more than half-a-million (illegal) cigarettes. Besides such cold hard numbers there’s canine support in everyday real life, as their noses can track any perpetrator perfectly,” gushed Canine Department Head Jānis Želvis.
“Now we can get across any obstacle to make our way freely through the borderlands,” Immigration Control Service chief Aigars Zvaigzne told LRT.
The whole procurement was valued as €2.78m, 75% of which was co-financed by the European Union.
