According to the daily, Latvia accounted for about 7 percent of all smuggled tobacco busted in Lithuania last year, but the indicator soared to 85 percent over the first few months of 2015.
The statistics of cigarettes by piece is just as impressive – 8.2 million cigarettes were brought into Lithuania from Latvia throughout the year 2014, as compared with over 10 million cigarettes that entered Lithuania in January and February of this year.
The bulk of the tobacco transits Lithuania and is intended for the black markets of Poland, Germany and other countries, the daily said. According to market research, the use of smuggled tobacco products in Lithuania has declined.
Customs officials maintain that the increased flows of unlawful tobacco products may have to do with illegal factories in the Latvian territory and the minimum and fragmented control between countries of the Schengen zone, which is conducted by customs mobile control groups alone.
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