Poland charges five men for smuggling cigarettes from Belarus with balloons

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Polish prosecutors have charged five people for smuggling cigarettes from Belarus to Poland using weather balloons.

They say that the gang’s actions, as well as costing Poland over 2 million zloty (€474,000) in lost taxes, also helped support Russia’s aggression against Ukraine by providing income to Belarus, which is an ally of Moscow.

Since 2024, smugglers have increasingly used balloons to carry cigarettes over the border with Poland, as a migration and security crisis on the border has shut down traditional smuggling routes by road, rail and land.

Poland has also accused Belarus of using the balloons to test Polish air defences as part of Minsk and Moscow’s “hybrid actions”, which also include migrant smuggling, acts of sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation.

On Thursday, prosecutors announced that they have charged five men with operating a criminal group that smuggled cigarettes by balloon from Belarus, using GPS trackers embedded inside the packages to locate them once they reached Poland.

Polish broadcaster Polsat reports that the suspects comprise two Polish citizens, two Ukrainians and one Belarusian.

As well as being accused of running a criminal gang that smuggled at least 48,000 packs of cigarettes – causing losses of more than 2 million zloty to the state treasury –  the men have also been charged with violating air traffic regulations.

Finally, prosecutors say that their actions helped “Belarus to diversify its sources of income and thus enable it to participate in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine”, thereby violating a law on counteracting support for aggression against Ukraine.

Investigators note that among the smuggled cigarettes were some produced by Grodno Tobacco Factory Neman, which is a Belarusian state-controlled enterprise.

On Wednesday, the district court in Siedlce ordered that all five suspects be placed in pretrial detention for a period of three months. The men reportedly admitted to committing the crimes. They could face from 9 months to 12 years in prison if found guilty.

Weather balloons from Belarus continue to regularly enter Polish airspace. At the end of January, two other individuals were detained and charged with using that method to smuggle cigarettes.

Such incidents have not brought the same level of public alarm as when Russian drones violated Polish airspace last year, but Polish officials view them nevertheless as part of the “hybrid warfare” tactics being used to test Polish defences and cause disruption.

Since 2021, Belarus has also been helping tens of thousands of migrants – mainly from the Middle East, Asia and Africa – to cross into Poland. In response, Poland has significantly strengthened physical and electronic barriers along the border as well as suspending the right of those who cross to claim asylum.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Straż Graniczna

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.