Two officers of the Lida Border Control Unit have been arrested on suspicion of helping smugglers get cigarettes into Lithuania.
The two young officers provided smugglers with information about the placing of patrols along the Lithuanian border, Syarhey Sharshanevich, a spokesperson for the Hrodna regional office of the Investigative Committee of Belarus, told BelaPAN on Wednesday.
According to Mr. Sharshanevich, on August 9, a minibus with three local residents inside was intercepted in a forest in the Shchuchyn district. The men attempted to illegally take 48,000 packs of cigarettes worth more than 254 million rubels (some $28,500) out of Belarus. As many as 52,000 packs of cigarettes worth more than 275 million rubels were found during a search of the home of one of the men.
The smugglers are believed to have given a bribe of more than $2,000 to one of the border guards.
Both of them admitted their guilt, Mr. Sharshanevich noted.
