Publication date: 8 October 2026

Claim

A Belarusian state television segment suggested that weather balloons carrying smuggled cigarettes fly only into Lithuania even though Poland also borders Belarus. The question was presented as an anomaly and a reason to doubt the Lithuanian authorities' explanation.

Verdict

False. Official Polish Border Guard reports confirm dozens of cases in which illegal cigarettes were transported by weather balloon across the Polish-Belarusian border. The Podlaskie Border Guard unit alone reported about 120 such incidents since the beginning of its reporting year, while the Nadbużański unit reported more than 50. Polish officers found balloons, GPS transmitters and thousands of cigarette packs in individual operations.

In brief

• The Polish Border Guard publicly documents cigarette smuggling by weather balloon.

• In Podlaskie, officers found several balloons and more than 10,000 illegal cigarette packs over a few days.

• The Podlaskie unit reported about 120 incidents since the beginning of the year and 25 arrests.

• The Nadbużański unit reported more than 50 incidents and seized cigarettes worth almost PLN 1 million.

• Different detection totals between countries do not make the documented Polish cases disappear.

Why this matters

The claim replaces a verifiable fact with a suggestion of conspiracy. If audiences are told that this smuggling method appears in only one country, real safety measures may look invented or politically motivated.

Contraband balloons concern more than excise revenue. They involve unauthorised border crossings by air, GPS guidance for recipients and possible aviation disruption. Public discussion should therefore use confirmed reports from services on both sides rather than a rhetorical question from a television broadcast.

What we checked

We checked the statement documented by the Belarusian Investigative Center's Weekly Top Fake team and three official Polish Border Guard reports. They describe balloons, cigarette loads, GPS transmitters, arrests and aggregate figures from two Polish border units.

We did not assess which country received more launches, what share of balloons went undetected or who organised every incident. Public seizure records do not provide a complete comparable dataset for Lithuania and Poland.

Evidence

One official Polish Border Guard report described seven incidents over several days. Officers seized more than 10,000 cigarette packs valued at almost PLN 185,000. A vehicle contained a GPS transmitter with a SIM card, and detained recipients faced charges under Polish fiscal criminal law.

The same report said that the Podlaskie Border Guard unit had recorded about 120 weather-balloon incidents involving illegal excise goods since the beginning of the year. The estimated value of seized cigarettes exceeded PLN 2.9 million, and 25 people had been detained.

A separate Podlaskie report described three incidents during one night and morning. Officers found balloon remains and more than 6,000 cigarette packs with an estimated value above PLN 100,000. Two people were detained when they arrived to collect one of the loads.

The Nadbużański unit also reported a shipment carried by a weather balloon from the east. Recipients located it by GPS and by using wind direction. The unit said it had recorded more than 50 such incidents since the beginning of the year and had seized cigarettes worth almost PLN 1 million.

These official records directly contradict the original wording. Contraband balloons do not fly only into Lithuania. Polish services regularly detect such loads and publish details about their operations.

What remains unknown

The number of detected loads is not the total number of launches. Some balloons may fall before crossing the border, remain unnoticed or be collected before officers arrive. Figures from different units may also cover different periods and accounting methods.

The public reports do not support a comparison of detection effectiveness between Lithuania and Poland, nor do they identify the organisers of every launch. The data therefore do not prove that the scale is equal on both sides of the border. They establish only that the Polish route is real and well documented.

Conclusion

The claim that weather balloons carrying smuggled cigarettes fly only into Lithuania is false. The Polish Border Guard has recorded dozens of such incidents, seized thousands of cigarette packs and detained recipients. Differences in public attention or national response do not erase the documented Polish cases.

Sources

1. Belarusian Investigative Center, Weekly Top Fake, source claim and fact-check: https://belarusfiles.org/en/fakenews/newsby-shary-kontrabanda-polsha-litva-granitsa

2. Polish Border Guard, Podlaskie, seven incidents and about 120 cases since the beginning of the year: https://www.strazgraniczna.pl/pl/aktualnosci/14901%2CBalony-meteorologiczne-z-nielegalna-przesylka.html

3. Podlaskie Border Guard unit, three loads and more than 6,000 packs: https://www.podlaski.strazgraniczna.pl/pod/aktualnosci/68941%2CBalony-z-papierosami-na-polskim-niebie.html

4. Polish Border Guard, Nadbużański, more than 50 incidents and GPS guidance description: https://strazgraniczna.pl/pl/aktualnosci/15084,Wschodni-wiatr-i-balon-z-papierosami.html

5. Delfi, reporting the Lithuanian government decision and Interior Ministry material on airborne contraband: https://www.delfi.lt/verslas/naujienos/vyriausybe-del-balionu-is-baltarusijos-ivede-ekstremalia-padeti-120184198

Corrections and updates

If Polish or Lithuanian authorities publish comparable final data covering the same period, we will add them to this article. Material corrections will be listed in this section.