On June 14, Minsk /BelTA correspondent/. Thirteen attempts to illegally export cigarettes to the European Union countries were thwarted by border guards over the past weekend and Friday. This was reported to a BelTA correspondent by the press center of the State Border Committee. In total, about 178 thousand pieces of contraband cigarettes worth over Br7 million were discovered and seized. This figure is not final, as about half of the detained tobacco products are awaiting valuation. The State Border Committee noted that smugglers continue to hide illegal cargo in car compartments. Thus, on June 12, at the Urbany border crossing point, Polotsk border guards, together with customs officers, detained two Volvo trucks heading to Latvia within a 10-minute interval. A Belarusian citizen hid boxes of Russian cigarettes in the sealed semi-trailer. His "colleague" from Poland, traveling in the second truck, admitted himself that the contraband was also hidden in the false bottom of his semi-trailer. -0-

BELTA