22 February 2002
Armed man caught on train in Brest headed for Poland

 A man with a loaded pistol and a large amount in undeclared German cash has been arrested by Belarusian customs officers in the border city of Brest on a train en route from Moscow to Warsaw.
The man, a resident of the Belarusian city of Vitebsk, carried as much as 109,700 German marks that did not look genuine; his gun was loaded with eight rounds, but he surrendered peacefully, BelaPAN was told by Nikolai Ignatsevich, deputy chief of the Brest Customs Office.
"It is hard to imagine what could have happened had the armed passenger offered resistance, the more so as he was arrested by a female officer. This is the first time in five years that we find a gun on a passenger," Mr. Ignatsevich said.
The man has been put in a detention center. Criminal proceedings have been instituted against him. Mr. Ignatsevich says there is little doubt that the money the man carried was low-quality counterfeit. The notes are now undergoing tests.