Customs: alcohol smuggling surges in 2020

Customs officers seized 14.5 tons of illegal alcohol last year, up from 2.5 tons in the previous year, Gediminas Kulikauskas, spokesman for the Customs Criminal Service, said in an interview to LRT Radio.

“We have to state that smuggling volumes have increased, in particular in the final quarter of last year …,” he said.

Kulikauskas pointed out that smuggling in this case concerned large volumes, which had led to the initiation of pre-trial investigations.

According to him, small-scale smuggling last year was constrained by movement restrictions put in place due to the pandemic.

“Small-scale smuggling did take place but only early last year, before the rollout of movement restrictions. The overall volumes, however, were much larger than in the previous year,” Kulikauskas pointed out.

The State Border Guard Service reported early in 2021 that the country’s border guards last year discovered 526 cases of smuggling, up from 494 in 2019. In addition, border guards detained 631 suspected smugglers, up from 583 in 2019.