Alytus balloon cargo, Sept 29 - 15,075 cigarette packs

Border guards found the remains of an air balloon and 15,075 packs of cigarettes in Alytus on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, Lithuania's State Border Guard Service (VSAT) said. AirVeto has now reconstructed two balloon cargoes within 19 km of the city, and this one is the first where the balloon remains and the cargo were both found in the city itself.

Border guards followed a tip to the balloon's remains

Officers from the criminal intelligence unit of VSAT's Varėna Border District were checking information they had received. In the industrial part of Alytus they found the remains of an air balloon and a plastic tube with a GPS tracker attached. VSAT says smugglers use such trackers to locate where a cargo lands.

The cigarettes sat in company garages 100 m from the balloon

About 100 m from the balloon remains, in garages belonging to a local company, officers found rectangular boxes. They held 15,075 packs of NZ Gold and Winston cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps. VSAT put the value at over €83,000 once Lithuanian taxes are counted.

A search of the owner's home turned up €76,600 in cash

Officers searched the home of the company's owner, a 50-year-old Alytus resident, and found €76,600 in cash. VSAT suspects the money came from illegal activity. The owner was detained. Regionų žinios reported that he was held in a custody cell, and that after questioning he was given a written pledge not to leave and his documents were taken.

The Varėna Border District opened a pretrial investigation into unlawful possession of excise goods, led by a prosecutor from the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor's Office. The offence carries a fine or up to eight years in prison. The cigarettes and the cash are held by VSAT while the case runs.

This is AirVeto's second balloon cargo near Alytus since July

The last balloon cargo AirVeto reconstructed nearby was the Veismūnai ambush, 19 km from Alytus, 64 days earlier. There, officers caught three men collecting 12,000 packs from a forest. In Alytus the cargo was already inside a company's garages, and the balloon remains were in the same industrial part of the city. The wider picture is on the Lithuania balloon landings page.

The wind never blew from Belarus toward Alytus at 3,000 m

From the morning of September 27 through the end of September 29, the wind at 3,000 m over Alytus stayed between the NW and the NNW, at 8 to 25 km/h. That flow carries a balloon toward the southeast, away from Belarus, so a balloon at that height could not have drifted in from the south in those three days.

The only flow pushing north came low down. At 2,000 m the wind turned to blow from the southeast and south on the afternoon of September 28, but at just 2 to 3 km/h. VSAT does not say when the balloon landed. Whatever flew this cargo either rode that weak low-level flow, or flew earlier than September 27. Method is on the AirVeto methodology page.

This reconstruction is based on reporting by VSAT, 15min.lt and Regionų žinios, and AirVeto's wind-model data for September 27 to 29.