Bangladesh, Nov. 19 -- Lithuania is facing an unusual yet increasingly disruptive security challenge: a surge of cigarette smuggling operations carried out not by trucks or covert couriers, but by helium-filled balloons and weather devices drifting silently across its border with Belarus. What once sounded like a creative gimmick has now escalated into a full-blown national security concern, threatening aviation safety, overwhelming law enforcement, and prompting high-level government action.

The Lithuanian Interior Ministry announced this week that authorities had arrested four individuals allegedly linked to a sophisticated cross-border smuggling network that uses hot-air balloons to ferry illegal cigarettes into the country. The arres...