Lithuanian customs seize truck with 500,000 illegal cigarette packs

The Lithuanian Customs Criminal Investigation Service announced on Thursday that it had detained a freight truck that entered Lithuania from Latvia. During an inspection, customs officers found a large number of smuggled cigarettes in the vehicle’s semi-trailer.

According to the service, the semi-trailer contained approximately half a million packs of illegal cigarettes. The estimated value of the contraband is 2.4 million euros. The truck had reportedly entered Lithuanian territory from Latvia before it was stopped and searched.

In its brief announcement, the agency confirmed the discovery of the illegal cigarettes in the semi-trailer. The scale of the find — roughly 500,000 packs worth 2.4 million euros — highlights the large volume of the smuggling attempt. The vehicle was a freight truck, and the cigarettes were stored in its semi-trailer, rather than in other parts of the vehicle.

The customs service made the information public on Thursday, providing the key details of the seizure. No further specifics were included in the statement, but the core facts describe a significant contraband operation involving cross-border transport from Latvia into Lithuania. The case remains under the work of the Customs Criminal Investigation Service.