Particle.news
Download on the App Store
8 ARTICLES
·
3h ago

Up to 25 Contraband Balloons Force Brief Closure at Vilnius Airport

Officials classify the cross-border incursions as organized cigarette smuggling using low-cost balloons.

In this undated photo released by the State Border Guard Service, an officer inspects a balloon used to carry cigarettes into Lithuania, because Belarussian smugglers often use them to ferry the contraband into the European Union (State Border Guard Service via AP)
photo of cigarettes, marlboro, cigarette pack, and grey in Bridgewater, United States by David Trinks
(Image Credit: Pofka/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)
Image

Overview

  • Operations at Vilnius Airport resumed at 04:50 local time on Sunday after a temporary shutdown that disrupted about 30 flights and roughly 6,000 passengers.
  • Two balloons were tracked directly over the airport, with more than two dozen recorded across Vilnius County between approximately 8:45 p.m. Saturday and 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
  • Border police recovered 11 balloons and seized about 18,000 packs of smuggled cigarettes from several locations.
  • Authorities say the balloons were launched from inside Belarus as a cheaper alternative to drones, and they have increased monitoring along the border.
  • Lithuania’s interior minister said the incidents are being treated as organized crime, with the response informed by recent drone incursions and July Gerbera drone crashes that led to shoot-down authority for unmanned aircraft.