Event ad1a4531-13fa-48d8-8361-558a59e0d2e9

Approved event from Hybrid War Tracker

Status: Approved Confidence: Low Category: Border Country: Latvia Country: Belarus

Source: https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/crime/11.04.2025-smuggler...

🕐

Event Time

8mo ago

➕

Created

1mo ago

✏️

Updated

1mo ago

Summary

Headline: Smuggler van caught masked as Daugavpils public transport minibus

Description

Latvian Border Guard intercepted a van disguising itself as a public transport minibus from Daugavpils to illegally transport migrants across the Latvia-Belarus border. The vehicle, equipped with fake plates and emblems, attempted to mimic official public transit and was abandoned following a police chase.

Evidence

Quotes

Having previously created fake border guard vehicles, fake police vans and even fake firewood delivery trucks to transport illegal border crossers into the European Union from Belarus, people smugglers have now been caught using a minibus pretending to be a public transport vehicle from Latvia's second-largest city, Daugavpils.

On the evening of April 10, after a chase in Svariņi parish, a person transporting people who had illegally crossed the state border was detained in a fake 'Daugavpils autobus' park (Daugavpils auto park, DAP) minibus.

The vehicle had fake plates and side emblems along with the DAP logo, making it look at a glance just like a real public transport vehicle, the State Border Guard said.

The driver of the vehicle did not react to the request to stop, so the border guard had to produce documents and left the scene in a hurry.

After a chase of approximately 10 minutes, the man abandoned the vehicle in the village of Svariņi and tried to flee, but without success.

Almost at the same time, a second person, a Somali citizen who had illegally crossed the Latvian-Belarusian border was detected.

Criminal proceedings were initiated against the driver, a Ukrainian citizen, for attempting to provide illegal immigrants with an opportunity to stay illegally in the Republic of Latvia.

According to the information available to the State Border Guard, a group of two or more persons planning to cross the state border illegally had gathered on the Belarusian side, and the minibus had been specially prepared for the movement of these persons.

Source

https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/crime/11.04.2025-smuggler-van-caught-masked-as-daugavpils-public-transport-minibus.a595158/