“Fourteen officials have been detained. This is an unprecedented case. We are glad that since December we have been detaining and dismantling smuggling networks. But the fact that employees of the authorities are involved is a painful and unacceptable fact,” the politician said to reporters on Friday during a visit to the Akmene district municipality. Last week, the Criminal Police Bureau of Lithuania detained 27 people, including 10 police officers, three border guards, and an employee of the Šalčininkai district municipality. Most of the detainees are residents of the Šalčininkai district. “I think this is not the end of the story. We have been fighting against meteorological probes since October. Essentially, this was a hybrid attack – we see certain actions from Belarus. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, this was smuggling that has been going on unhindered for years,” Ruginiene noted. According to her, smuggling has been transported to Lithuania using meteorological probes since the beginning of 2024. The Prime Minister thanked the criminalists, emphasizing that the detention of officials is an extraordinary event. “Nobody knows how the investigation will end. I have no doubt that we will learn much more soon. The system must be cleansed, and trust in the state must grow,” the Prime Minister noted. As reported by BNS, during the operation last week, 74 searches were conducted, involving more than 100 police officers. According to the investigation, the detained officials provided smugglers with official information. In this investigation, suspicions have been raised not only for smuggling and creating a criminal organization but also for assisting another state in actions against Lithuania. According to prosecutors, this involves disrupting the operations of airports.