Lithuania says balloons disrupting air traffic are sent by smugglers transporting contraband cigarettes from Belarus into the EU.
Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025
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Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene has said Lithuania will start to shoot down smuggler balloons crossing from Belarus and also shut its border crossings with the neighbouring country following repeated interruptions to its air traffic.
“Today we have decided to take the strictest measures, there is no other way,” Ruginiene told a news conference on Monday, saying the crossings will be closed except for travel by diplomats and by European Union citizens leaving Belarus.
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NATO and European Union member Lithuania closed Vilnius Airport four times last week after balloons entered its airspace. Each time, it temporarily shut its Belarus border crossings in response to the incidents.
Calling the incidents “hybrid attacks”, Ruginiene said her cabinet will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to prolong the closure of the Belarus border crossings, the BNS news agency reported.
She also said it may also discuss Lithuania invoking NATO Article 4, which states any member country can request a consultation with others whenever it believes its “territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened”.
European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and other air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen, Munich and the Baltic region.
Lithuania has said balloons are sent by smugglers transporting contraband cigarettes from Belarus into the EU, but the country also blames Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for not stopping the practice.
There was no immediate comment from Belarus.
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lives in exile in Lithuania, said in written comments to The Associated Press news agency that the balloon incidents were “yet another sign that the regime is using cigarette smuggling as a tool of hybrid aggression against Europe”.
On Thursday, Lithuania said two Russian military aircraft entered its airspace for about 18 seconds, prompting a formal protest and a reaction from NATO forces, while Russia denied the incident.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said recent airspace violations should not be regarded as isolated incidents.
“These are calculated provocations designed to destabilize, distract (and) test NATO’s resolve,” Budrys wrote on X.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas is awaiting sentence for importing cannabis into the UK
As a footballer, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas seemed destined for greatness. But a drug-smuggling conviction has left his career and reputation in tatters. How did things unravel so dramatically for a player once tipped for the top?
Hailed by legendary Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger as a footballer who could “play anywhere”, Emmanuel-Thomas was marked out early on as having elite potential.
Imposing, technically gifted and surprisingly agile, the striker appeared to have the world at his feet.
But a career that promised so much at Arsenal faltered and saw him spend years flitting between the second and third tiers of English football.
In 2020 he moved to play in Scotland and was still plying his trade north of the border when, on 18 September, he was arrested at his home in Gourock, near Glasgow.
Sixteen days earlier, Border Force officers had stopped two women at London Stansted Airport and found drugs in their cases.
It was not a minor haul; they were staring at cannabis with a street value of £600,000.
How did it get there? The evidence soon led detectives to Emmanuel-Thomas.
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Emmanuel-Thomas (centre) captained Arsenal to FA Youth Cup victory, aged 16. His team-mates included future England star Jack Wilshere (left)
Wind back a decade and a half, and things were very different.
It is 26 May 2009, and Arsenal’s latest batch of academy talents can barely contain their excitement.
The young prospects, including Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin, have just won the FA Youth Cup.
One player in particular has stood out: their 16-year-old captain, Emmanuel-Thomas, who has scored in every round of the competition.
“These young men have a very bright future indeed,” remarked one commentator.
But despite going on to make five first-team appearances, it was not quite to be for Emmanuel-Thomas.
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Emmanuel-Thomas, pictured at the back with his tongue out, was caught after a “very thorough investigation” by the NCA
He was shipped out on several loans before leaving the north London club for Ipswich Town.
It was a move that excited supporters in Suffolk, who were keen to see what the former Arsenal starlet could produce.
However, 71 games and eight goals later, Emmanuel-Thomas had not quite made the mark fans hoped for, and he moved to Bristol City in a player exchange deal.
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Emmanuel-Thomas’s spell at Ipswich did not live up to fans’ hopes
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The striker was a prolific scorer in his first season at Bristol City
Here, he helped the Robins secure promotion to the Championship and became something of a cult hero, scoring 21 goals in his first season.
A move to Queens Park Rangers followed, with subsequent loan spells at MK Dons and Gillingham.
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A spell at MK Dons was another step in Emmanuel-Thomas’s career
But in 2019, Emmanuel-Thomas accepted a transfer to a Thai-based team that would alter the course of his life.
It is believed he was tempted into the country’s drugs underworld while playing for PTT Rayong, a club that folded in the same year.
Despite later moves to an Indian side and several Scottish outfits, including Aberdeen, Emmanuel-Thomas never shook off the criminal connections he made.
By the time he took a six-month contract at Greenock Morton, a 40-minute drive from Glasgow, the game was almost up.
NCA
The drugs were intercepted by Border Force officers at London Stansted Airport in Essex
The women arrested at Stansted were his 33-year-old girlfriend, Yasmin Piotrowska, and her friend Rosie Rowland, 28.
Emmanuel Thomas, by then 33, appeared in court charged with orchestrating the attempted importation of drugs, and was sacked by his club.
Detectives discovered he had duped Ms Piotrowska, from north-west London, and Ms Rowland, from Chelmsford, into travelling to Thailand with the promise of £2,500 in cash and an all-expenses-paid trip.
Their job? To bring home two suitcases each, filled with what they were assured was gold, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.
‘I feel sorry for the girls’
They flew business class from Bangkok, landing in Essex via Dubai.
Unknown to them, they were smuggling in cannabis with a street value of £600,000, vacuum-packed inside the four cases.
The pair were stopped and arrested by Border Force officers, before being charged with drug importation offences.
With the pair in custody, and Emmanuel-Thomas later remanded, police probed how the drugs made it to the UK.
They soon found the player was the intermediary between suppliers in Thailand and dealers in the UK, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).
With the footballer’s encouragement, the women had also made a near-identical trip in July, having been made similar promises of cash and a lavish holiday.
On his way to custody, Emmanuel-Thomas even told NCA officers: “I just feel sorry for the girls.”
Elizabeth Cook/PA Media
Emmanuel-Thomas changed his plea to guilty
His first court hearing in September was told he carried out “extensive research” into flights and directions, including which airports the women had been going to.
David Philips, a senior NCA investigator, said “organised criminals like Emmanuel-Thomas” used persuasion and payment to get people to do their dirty work.
“But the risk of getting caught is very high and it simply isn’t worth it,” he added.
During several court appearances, Emmanuel-Thomas, of Cardwell Road, Gourock, strenuously denied attempting to import cannabis.
However, he changed his plea to guilty at the start of May and restrictions on reporting this were lifted on Wednesday.
Charges against both Ms Piotrowska and Ms Rowland were dropped after the prosecution revealed they had been tricked by Emmanuel-Thomas.
It followed what David Josse KC described as a “very thorough investigation”.
Emmanuel-Thomas appeared via video link from HMP Chelmsford at his latest court hearing.
When he returns to court for sentencing, on a date still to be confirmed, it will not be his first time in the spotlight.
But it will be for very different reasons to the day he lifted that trophy aloft in 2009.
THE distraught father of drugs charge teenager Bella Culley has vowed to stand by his daughter – amid new fears Far East drugs gangs are targeting British backpackers.
Bella, 18, is on remand in a grim jail following her arrest in Georgia’s Tbilisi airport with a suitcase of cannabis after going missing 4,000 miles away in Thailand.
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Bella’s dad Niel, who flew to Tbilisi last week, told The Sun he ‘will be here for as long as it takes’Credit: Paul Edwards
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Bella revealed in court that she was ‘in love’ with a mystery man and that she is pregnantCredit: Facebook
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Niel and Bella’s aunt Kerry Culley pictured after their meeting with Bella’s lawyer La ToduaCredit: Paul Edwards
Bella’s flight took off from the same Bangkok airport within hours of another pretty British trafficking suspect arrested with £1.2 million of a cannabis-related drug in Sri Lanka.
Former air stewardess Charlotte May Lee, 21, was in a gruesome Sri Lankan jail cell last night awaiting a court appearance.
Their arrests have sparked fears that Thai gangs may be hoodwinking vulnerable British backpackers into ferrying their drugs after a crackdown on postal trafficking.
Bella was facing at least nine months on remand in a grim Soviet-era jail alongside hardened criminals.
She had joked online of “Bonnie and Clyde” hijinks while showing off cash wads in the Far East and was pictured smoking a spliff.
Bella’s family from Billingham, County Durham are convinced she was preyed upon after flying to the Far East to party with a mystery man feared to have hooked her up with drugs runners.
Her dad Niel – a Vietnam-based oil rig electrician – flew to Tbilisi last week desperate for answers after tearful Bella told a court that she was pregnant.
But he has yet to meet his daughter within the drab confines of No5 Women’s Penitentiary on the outskirts of the Georgian capital and remains baffled by her plight.
Asked about his plans after arriving in Tbilisi, Mr Culley, 49, told The Sun today: “I can’t say anything but I will be here for as long as it takes.
“I obviously have no experience in dealing with situations like this and it’s very difficult.”
Pregnant ‘smuggler’ Bella Culley faces raising her child in grim ex-Soviet prison
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Bella from Billingham, County Durham, was seen in court in Tbilisi after being detained on suspicion of carrying 14kg of cannabisCredit: East2West
Appearing shaky as he puffed on a cigarette, the anxious dad at one point appeared ready to make a statement when asked how his daughter was bearing up in prison.
But he broke off to confer with Bella’s aunt Kerrie Culley – who is supporting him in Georgia – and returned shaking his head.
He added: “I’m being advised by the British Embassy and can’t comment at the moment.
“But that may change in the future depending on what happens.”
Fears are growing that a Thai drugs gang is preying on British backpackers this summer as Charlotte became the second Brit flying out of Bangkok to be arrested within days.
She was detained at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka on Monday – the day after Bella’s arrest – where police say she had a huge stash of kush – a synthetic strain of cannabis.
Charlotte from Chipstead, Surrey was last night locked in a cell with 20 other prisoners with barely room to lie down as she awaited a court hearing.
Bella took off first from Bangkok on a 20-hour flight via Sharjah in the UAE to Georgia while Charlotte left later on a three-hour direct flight to Sri Lanka.
Both girls departed from the Thai capital during the Royal Ploughing Ceremony weekend – one of the busiest festivals of the year when airports are crammed with tourists.
It is believed to have provided a prime opportunity for traffickers to operate mules – particularly attractive young Britons who arouse less suspicion.
The two arrests follow a huge crackdown on smugglers sending cannabis to the UK by post.
A joint operation by both countries has seen a 90 per cent in reduction in the drug being mailed to Britain since last year.
It suggests Thai gangs may now be reverting to using drug mules to ship their products instead – and targeting British backpackers.
Thailand decriminalised cannabis in 2022 which sparked a massive rise in the narcotic being posted to Britain.
The law change allowed traffickers to hoodwink trippers into believing transporting it was legal.
Thai checks of mail being shipped stopped 1.5 tonnes in the first quarter of this year – a 90 percent drop in the illicit cargo – in a drive which frustrated the gangs.
Some 800 people including 50 British nationals have been arrested in Thailand for attempted smuggling since July 2024 with over nine tonnes of cannabis seized.
Retired Georgian police chief General Jemal Janashia voiced concerns that backpackers were being targeted yesterday.
He said: “The fact that two young British women have taken off with large quantities of drugs from the same airport will interest investigators.
“They will be concerned about the possibility of a link and that Thai gangs may be attempting to recruit vulnerable British travellers.
“After the crackdown on postal drug deliveries, the Thai cartel are seeking new routes and Georgia does look like an attractive middle transit point.
“It’s relatively close, and easy to reach Europe and is visa free to European travellers.”
He added: “I feel sorry for this woman because she was clearly used and manipulated. She’s 18, she’s a foreigner, pregnant.
“All of this indicates that she was chosen deliberately, chosen carefully, she was studied.
“Whoever chose her, they knew what they were doing.”
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A female prison near Tbilsi, Georgia where suspected Brit drug mule Bella Culley is being heldCredit: .
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The exterior of Tbilisi Prison No.5, which is Georgia’s only female prisonCredit: Not known, clear with picture desk
A BRIT teen held in Georgia accused of smuggling 30lb of marijuana is the great-granddaughter of a Labour MP who was caught up in the parliamentary expenses scandal.
But the nursing student from County Durham is the great-granddaughter of ex-Stockton North Labour MP Frank Cook, who passed away in 2012, the MailOnline has reported.
Culley is reported to regularly post pictures with her “special lady” grandmother – who is the late MP’s daughter.
In one post wishing her happy birthday, she says she loves her “unconditionally” before calling her “one of the most important ladies in my life”.
Cook, who represented Stockton North for 27 years, was among the MPs implicated in the 2009 expenses row that rocked Westminster to its core.
It transpired he had claimed for £153,902, which included a £5 donation made by an aide representing him at a memorial service.
However, he would later explain this donation was an IOU from the member of staff who went to the service on his behalf – and that he expensed it by mistake.
“It was a genuine mistake and I stress again: I would never deliberately make a claim of this kind,” he said.
He would later lose a libel case against The Sunday Telegraph following the revelations.
Cook stood as an independent candidate in his constituency at the 2010 general election after being deselected by Labour, but he failed to retain the seat.
He died in 2012 at the age of 76 – a year after being diagnosed with lungcancer.
Culley was arrested after she was allegedly caught trying to sneak 34 bags of marijuana in her luggage through the Georgian capital’s main airport.
Her family had raised the alarm after she failed to contact anyone since Saturday – despite usually being a prolific texter.
Her dad Neil Culley, who lives in Vietnam, has reportedly flown to the Eastern European nation to be by his daughter’s side.
A loved-one said: “She is just a student – she doesn’t really go out or do anything like that. She just wanted a break so took herself to Thailand.
“She must have become mixed up with someone. She must have met someone who has taken advantage of her.”
Authorities in Georgia claim she tried to stash 34 bags of cannabis in her luggage which was detected at the airport.
RIOTS, HUNGER STRIKES AND STRIP SEARCHES… LIFE IN A BRUTAL GEORGIA PRISON
A report by Georgia’s ombudsman into Women’s Penitentiary No. 5 outlines the horrors that could await the Brit teenager.
“When prisoners are received at the No.5 Facility, they are inspected naked and are requested to squat, which the inmates consider degrading treatment,” the report reads.
“According to inmates, this procedure is especially humiliating and intensive during an inmate’s menstrual cycle.”
Hygiene problems are said to be rampant, with reports of no running drinking water and clogged drains.
Just earlier this year, the journalist Mzia Amaglobeli went on hunger strike inside the women’s prison in protest against Georgia’s government.
In 2006, a Tbilisi prison saw seven inmates killed and 17 seriously injured in one of the country’s worst ever prison riots.
Authorities were accused of using excessive force.
A Human Rights Watch report has found Georgia’s prisons are “severely overcrowded” – which threatens the safety of inmates.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry says she could face 20 years or even a life sentence in an overcrowded Women’s Penitentiary No. 5 in Rustavi
The country has been blasted for its treatment of its prisoners by rights groups.
Culley’s paternal grandfather said: “I’m terrified that she’s in for a long sentence. I might never see her again – I’m 80 years old.
“She’s got sucked into something, somehow. She’s not an international drug trafficker.
“It’s all just very strange and at the moment we just don’t have any answers. We don’t know what to think.”
Bella’s lawyer said after her court appearance: “My client is currently exercising the right to remain silent, so we will provide detailed information later, once they decide how to proceed.”
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Bella appears in court in Georgia earlier this weekCredit: East2West
