Polish border officials implicated in cigarette smuggling from Belarus

🇵🇱 Smugglers in Uniform

Politicians from our Western neighbours never tire of telling tales about 'Belarusian smugglers' allegedly bringing cigarettes across the border en masse, but reality looks different.

It's enough to open local media to see that the passports of those detained are not Belarusian.

A recent example from PAP: 'A former employee of Poland's Tax and Customs Service, who worked at the Bobrowniki border crossing, admitted in the Białystok court to involvement in cigarette smuggling from Belarus. He stated that he received €65,000 in bribes. Investigators believe the criminal group operated from autumn 2018 to spring 2020 in the Podlaskie and Masovian voivodeships.

Cigarettes were brought into Poland, including through the Bobrowniki border crossing. According to prosecutors, the group introduced at least 27 million packs of cigarettes into circulation. The damage to the Polish budget is estimated at 626.2 million zlotys ($168 million).

The total amount of bribes mentioned in the charges amounts to nearly 4.9 million zlotys. The defendants face up to 10 years in prison and heavy fines.'

While some shout from the podiums about the 'Belarusian threat,' Polish and Lithuanian customs officers and officials quietly profited from this business 🤷‍♂️