Soviet Lifeguards Held on Smuggling

MOSCOW — More than 10 Soviet lifeguards have been found guilty of smuggling hundreds of pairs of jeans, other goods and large amounts of foreign currency into the Soviet Union aboard lifeboats, a local newspaper reported.

Thursday’s issue of Sovietskaya Estonia, which reached Moscow on Saturday, said the men paid a customs official 250 rubles, about $320, to “close his eyes” to the racket in the port of Tallinn, capital of the Estonian Baltic Republic and close to the Finnish border.

The paper said the crimes were on a “very large scale,” but did not spell out the sentences or when they were carried out. Similar crimes in the Soviet Union normally earn prison terms of between five and 10 years.