Riga, March 16 (LETA) - Last night, two weather balloons used for smuggling were discovered in Madona municipality, General Guntis Pujats, Chief of the State Border Guard, said in an interview on commercial TV3 television.

Pujats commented that there are people who do not want to do honest work and "it would be naive to hope" that opportunities for easy profit will not be exploited.

However, the Border Guard chief assessed that the winter hads been generally calmer in this respect due to the weather conditions, e.g. smuggling of cigarettes along the frozen Daugava River was not possible.

In spring, however, the risks will increase, Pujats said, predicting that there will be attempts to use the Daugava for this purpose, as well as balloons and drones.

At the same time, the official stressed that the situation in Latvia is not nearly as dramatic as in Lithuania.