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's wind data shows that on September 29 the wind over Alytus came from Belarus for most of the day at 1 km and below. At 2 km it came from Russia's Kaliningrad region for 9 hours.

It is the second balloon cargo AirVeto has reconstructed within 19 km of the city. Unlike the first, at Veismūnai, where the cargo was collected in a forest, this one and the balloon remains were both found inside the city.

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 over Alytus came from Belarus low down and from Kaliningrad at 2 km

From Alytus, Belarus lies to the east and south (50° to 211°, 48 km at the nearest point) and Russia's Kaliningrad region to the west (268° to 309°, 81 km).

Below 2 km the wind came from Belarus for most of the day: all 24 hours at 80 m, 19 at 0.5 km and 14 at 1 km. At 2 km it came from Kaliningrad from 14:00 to 22:00 local time. From 4 km up it came from neither.

VSAT does not say when or at what height the balloon flew, so this shows the wind that day, not its route. Method.

This reconstruction is based on reporting by VSAT, 15min.lt and Regionų žinios, and AirVeto's wind-model data (DWD ICON-EU via Open-Meteo) for September 29.