RIGA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Customs officers from the Latvian State Revenue Service seized over five million illegal cigarettes from two motor vehicles with fake diplomatic registration plates in November, the tax authority informed on Thursday.
Customs officers and border guards were checking two cars driven by two foreigners when they discovered that the diplomatic registration plates on the vehicles were fake. The vehicles' Kazakh registration papers also proved false.
During the in-depth checks, which involved scanning and using a trained service dog, the customs officers discovered 5,132,800 contraband cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps hidden in the cars.
The two suspects, aged 40 and 35, were detained in connection with the cigarette smuggling case and two criminal probes were started for cigarette contraband, as well as making and using counterfeit documents.
