Border-guard officers from the Podlaskie Division, backed by Warsaw city police, arrested a Polish national on 20 October 2026 suspected of arranging illegal crossings for Middle-Eastern migrants along the Polish-Lithuanian green border. The man faces charges under Article 264 of the Criminal Code, carrying a maximum eight-year sentence. Investigators say the suspect had previously been detained in Lithuania for transporting migrants and continued his activities after posting bail. Polish prosecutors requested—and received—a three-month pre-trial detention order, citing risk of flight and evidence tampering. The arrest is the 120th this year in Podlaskie linked to organised facilitation of irregular migration, up from 79 in the same period of 2025. Authorities attribute the rise to tougher controls on the Belarus frontier, which have pushed smugglers to test Poland’s less fortified northern flank with Lithuania. For employers conducting background checks on drivers or subcontractors, the case is a reminder that convictions for people smuggling disqualify individuals from holding positions that involve cross-border transport under Polish road-transport regulations. Companies are urged to run criminal-record extracts (KRK) and EU-wide sanctions screenings when hiring. The Interior Ministry says additional plain-clothes patrols and drone surveillance will be deployed in the Augustów area over the next two weeks to deter further attempts.
