Record seven balloon shipments intercepted in southern Lithuania

Lithuanian border guards intercepted seven balloon-borne cigarette shipments in southern Lithuania on Friday, February 6, 2026, and detained two people, jp.lt and AINA.lt reported. AirVeto's wind data for the start of that day has the 3,000 m air over Druskininkai moving north-northwest at about 19 km/h, the direction from the Belarusian border into Lithuania there.

The shipments came down in the Varėna and Lazdijai districts and in Druskininkai municipality. The border guards said it was the most such shipments their officers had intercepted in one day in 2026, jp.lt reported. One landed in the Čepkeliai reserve in Varėna district, and officers waded about 3 km through snowdrifts to reach it.

REFORM.news, citing the State Border Guard Service, put the day's seizure at 12,700 packs of cigarettes. It gave the 2026 total so far as 40 airborne shipments, 108,000 packs and 23 suspects detained.

Wind over Druskininkai on February 6

The sources give no landing times, so the wind below is the field at the start of the day, not a tracked flight path. At 00:00 UTC the air at 3,000 m over Druskininkai came from the south-southeast at about 19 km/h. Across the surrounding grid it came from between the south-east and the south-west, at 11–30 km/h.

Wind parameter	Value
Altitude	3,000 m
Time	00:00 UTC, February 6, 2026 (landing times not published)
Direction (from), at the Druskininkai grid point	163° - south-southeast
Speed, at the Druskininkai grid point	~19 km/h
Direction range (from), surrounding 5×5 grid	137°–217° (SE to SW)
Speed range, surrounding 5×5 grid	11–30 km/h
Source	Open-Meteo historical-forecast-api

How AirVeto models the wind at this altitude, and where it is reliable, is on the methodology page. This reconstruction draws on reporting by jp.lt, AINA.lt and REFORM.news, and on AirVeto's wind data for February 6, 2026.

Context

Later Lithuanian balloon incidents in AirVeto's archive include the May 13 Kaunas Šančiai recovery. All Lithuanian smuggling-balloon incidents are collected at Kontrabandos balionai.