Smuggling - The Most Classified Topic In Russian Blogs

It's like northern lights for those who live in the Arctic, and it's like enormous watermelons for those who live in the South of Russia. For people who live in the very West of our country, in Kaliningrad, tons of smuggled goods transported back and forth on all borders of the region by "simple people" are a common scene.

All you can find online is just brief messages that tell a plain story of "ordinary citizens":

"A car so-and-so has been detained while crossing a border so-and-so. A driver was trying to cross the border with such-and-such quantity of such-and-such goods." Usually the message provides one of the two options for goods - cigarettes or drugs. No surprise, but these messages are not commented by users, often not even read at all.

If there is a commentary under those smuggling reports they can be probably summarized in a short questions that reflects the attitude of ordinary users - "So what! They need to feed their family!".

This kind of indifference is understandable. As long as there is a border, someone will always try to bring over or across it something illegal.

Even journalists write only about the most interesting cases. Oh yes, there are quite a few of such cases. Sometimes, mother wit and intelligence of smugglers surprise border guards and customs inspectors who seemed to have seen everything. For instance, trying to cross a boarder with a bar of gold, a smuggler hid this huge and heavy piece of gold in a toy car. An other smugger fed his dog with drugs. Well, variations of smugglers' creativity are countless.

If you never lived near the borderline, and let's say you are not from Kaliningrad that borders with Lithuania, Belarus and Poland, and if you are not overfed by reports on "ordinary" smuggling, let me tell you something about real smugglers and their contraband.

Modern Smuggler

What you would think who are the smugglers? Strong, muscular guys dressed in camouflage. Like in this user video from the detention spot, right?

It's usually nothing like this. If you ask residents of border towns, they would tell you that often smugglers are middle-aged women. These madams shove cigarettes and drugs in bags, pockets and other secret compartment. Yes, most of these ladies are... Well, let's say large women are more capacious smugglers.

Art Of Smuggling

Smugglers don't ignore progress and technology. They work on their skills accordingly. There are times when smugglers wear hydraulic suits and go underwater. If there is ice, they find a solution - white camouflage coats and sleighing along the river.

Of course, the border guards are doing their job. And also, for "quirky agents" there is always a pair of dogs. Actually, in this case the outcome of the game is predetermined. Four-legged dogs are always faster than two-legged smugglers.

Border Guards Story

Guards themselves admit that 80% of smuggling are detected only after someone tells on smugglers. After all, waiting lines at Kaliningrad borders with Lithuania and Poland stretch for several miles, and it's not always an easy task to inspect each car for illegal goods. So, who tells on smugglers?

Counterparty Competition

The "competing companies" (or shall we say representatives of different smuggling businesses) tell on each other. Besides, because of illegal goods shops located near the border can make quite a fortune on those goods. Not far from the Kaliningrad border - why spend money on gas! - in small border town shops Poles and Lithuanians get loaded with boxes of cheap cigarettes which in Poland and Lithuania are three to four times as expensive as in Kaliningrad. Shop owners, in return, immediately report these unlucky "citizen smugglers" to customs officials.

When such smugglers-to-be are stopped by border guards they are sent back to where they got their "cargo". And yes, everything they have bought from small town border shops they bring back to the same shops and sell it back to shop owners. Guess who is happy then?

This is how the cookies crumble. A dangerous smuggling turns out to be a business, and it's not really appropriate to talk about it online.

Zhenya ZHUROVA  |  PubliCiti.ru

Photo: ru-fr.com