Two Polish citizens arrested in Poland for collecting cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps delivered by balloons

The Polish Border Guard reported detaining two Polish citizens who tried to pick up cigarettes delivered by air from Belarus. The operation in Michałowo gmina was carried out by officers of the Bobrowniki and Michałowo border posts of the service's Podlasie unit.

The detainees are a 51-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man, residents of one of the border gminas.

Border guards found a package containing 1500 packs of cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps. Their value exceeds 40000 zlotys, or about 10200 US dollars. According to the agency, weather balloons were used for the smuggling.

The detainees have been charged under the Penal Fiscal Code, under the law on special measures to counter support for aggression against Ukraine and to protect national security, and under the aviation law. According to the border service, they face at least three years in prison.

A district court in Białystok remanded the man in custody for two months and the woman for one month.

According to the border guards, additional circumstances of the incident and other possible participants in the smuggling scheme are being established.