Lithuania's State Border Guard Service (VSAT) jammed and landed a cargo drone in a field near Norviliškės, in the Belarus-surrounded Dieveniškės Loop of Šalčininkai District, shortly after midnight on September 16, 2026. Officers of the Gintaras Žagūnis border post, part of VSAT's Varėna Border Guard Unit, spotted the drone crossing from Belarus and used anti-drone equipment that sent it dropping to the ground near the village, cargo still attached. The cargo: 1,000 packs of NZ Gold cigarettes carrying Belarusian tax stamps, worth €5,510 including the Lithuanian excise duty that would have applied to a legal sale.
The recovered cargo drone in a field near Norviliškės, cigarette cargo still attached to the frame. Photo: VSAT, via 15min.lt.
The 57th interception in eight and a half months
VSAT has landed 57 smuggler drones so far in 2026, already closing in on the 59 intercepted across the whole of 2025. This crossing landed on the same stretch of border where VSAT downed three drones in a single night in July: the Dieveniškės Loop, a salient of Lithuanian territory surrounded on three sides by Belarus. The shorter flight distance from the Belarusian side makes the loop one of the border's most frequently used crossing points.
Wind over the Dieveniškės Loop
At 21:00 UTC on September 15, within the event window, the 3,000 m layer over Norviliškės showed wind pushing southeast at 18.6 km/h. At 2,000 m the flow pushed east-northeast at 21.8 km/h. This reconstruction is based on 15min.lt's reporting of VSAT's own account and AirVeto's wind-model data for the event window. AirVeto's model and its documented limits are on the methodology page.
A full record of border and airspace incidents over Lithuanian territory is at Dronai Lietuvoje. The full incident archive is at incident archive.