On Saturday, March 2, border guards stopped the illegal movement of cigarettes across the Latvian-Belarusian border. A raft with smuggled cigarettes was pulled out of the River Daugava.
Border guards of the Aviation and Special Operations Board of the State Border Guard spotted a suspicious object on the bank of the River Daugava while flying along the state border in a helicopter. Involving officials of the Piedruja Border Guard Unit of the Daugavpils Board of the State Border Guard, who carried out an information check, a raft stuck in bushes was detected in the River Daugava, near the coast. Using a State Border Guard motorboat, 14 bundles, connected to each other and wrapped in polyethylene, were pulled from the river. State Police officers were summoned according to jurisdiction and, after examining the raft, found that it contained 200 000 "NZ Gold" cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps.
Criminal proceedings were initiated under Article 190(1) of the Criminal Law for smuggling committed on a significant scale.