Belarusian customs canine officers detected seven drug cases among scheduled-bus passengers on the border in the week before 20 August 2024.[1] All seven bus passengers were detained, and criminal cases were opened against them for unlawfully and intentionally moving narcotics across the EAEU customs border.[1]

A Latvian citizen travelling on the Riga–Gomel bus hid marijuana among his personal belongings, and a service dog found the packet as he underwent customs control.[1] Entering Belarus from Latvia at the Grigorovshchina checkpoint, the man had declared that he was carrying no prohibited or restricted goods subject to customs declaration.[1] Vitebsk customs officers searched his belongings and found a crumpled paper packet containing greenish-brown plant material.[1] Days later at the same checkpoint, officers found marijuana on a Kazakhstani citizen travelling the same route after a service dog alerted to narcotics in his suitcase.[1] He had hidden a plastic bag of the drug inside a pair of trainers.[1]

The agency said the seven passengers hid marijuana, hashish and methadone in their personal belongings.[1] It said the drugs were carried for personal use rather than commercial purposes, warning that such conduct could lead to loss of liberty.[1] A forensic examination by the Vitebsk department of the State Forensic Examination Committee confirmed that the material the men carried was marijuana.[1]