"Green corridor" for €500: Smugglers operate across the Lithuanian-Belarusian border

TV3 Plus investigation aired a week after Americans visited Minsk and discussed potassium purchases. The channel is commercial, with American investors, targeting Russian speakers in Lithuania.

In border areas, journalists say, it's well understood: one hand washes the other. Criminal groups have divided territories, with connections at the border, in police, and higher up. In May, two shift chiefs were arrested; one had assets worth about €500,000.

The tariff is simple: a small vehicle costs €500 paid to a border guard, a truckload — hundreds of thousands. Balloons that Vilnius calls a "hybrid attack" are, after landing, 97% collected and sold by Lithuanians.

Dmitry Lyubkin, who served on this border:

"In the 1990s, people from Lithuania were considered Europe's best smugglers. Organized crime groups emerged in every district town, almost all lived off excise goods, non-ferrous metals, and migrants. They involved relatives and law enforcement. The tradition remains. Crime reached the Seimas."❗️