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Eight Latvian border guards, customs officer held for involvement in car-theft ring

Xinhua, March 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

Eight Latvian border guard officers and a customs officer have been detained for involvement in a group of criminals that had been smuggling stolen cars from the EU to Russia, the Latvian State Border Guard said Friday.

In 2015 and 2016, Latvian law enforcement authorities busted several organized groups of criminals that had been smuggling stolen motor vehicles with replaced chassis numbers from EU countries to Russia.

Members of these criminal groups had also been involved in tobacco contraband from Russia to Lithuania and Poland. To secure safe passage across the Latvian border, some of the criminals established contacts with border guards and bribed them so that they turned a blind eye on the smugglers' illegal activities.

Several members of the criminal gang were nabbed in 2015 after suspicious motor vehicles were held at the border and officers found illegal cigarettes in hidden compartments in some cars. It turned out that some border guards were also involved in the smuggling scheme.

In January 2016, the criminal investigation resulted in the arrest of eight border guards, one customs officer and two private individuals. Two of the border guards and one private individual were remanded in custody. Four of the detained border guards quit the service in the State Border Guard on their own accord.

The investigation of the case is ongoing. Endit