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VITEBSK, 26 July (BelTA) - Smugglers have once again tried to use coal gondolas to move Belarusian cigarettes abroad. The attempt to smuggle 19,500 packs of cigarettes from the Republic of Belarus to the Republic of Latvia was foiled by the Polotsk border patrol, BelTA learnt from Denis Glebko, the chief of the press service of the Polotsk border patrol. During the search of a freight train at the Bigosovo railway station (Verkhnedvinsk District) the border patrol agents found 39 boxes of Portal cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps in a coal gondola. The consignment is estimated at Br39 million. Now authorities are trying to identify the people involved. This is not the first large shipment of cigarettes that has been seized at the border. In May and June this year along, the Polotsk border patrol confiscated more than 45,000 packs of illegal cigarettes, Denis Glebko said.

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