December 18, 2017
Reading time • 5 min
Seizure of a millionaire load of cigarette done in 1 day is the same amount of the total seized in 2
410 thousand packages were found in a truck convoy last Wednesday (6th).
Recent events that include arrests of military police officers and truck drivers with millionaire loads of smuggled cigarettes from Paraguay, the DOF (Border Operations Department), seized in just a day the same amount of goods carried out last year.
410 thousand packages were found in trucks last Wednesday (6th). In 2016, from January to December, o department seized 458 thousand packages. Last year, the highest number of seizure was in August 2016: 116.116 packages.
This year, until this date, 1.2 million packages of cigarettes were gathered by the DOF officers. As reported by SEJUSP (Secretariat of Justice and Public Security), the number of seizures is increasing except for the month of July, when the total was zero.
Convoy: Two trucks, three trailers and three double trucks coming from Paraguay were intercepted in Maracaju, 160 km from Campo Grande.
Those 410 thousand packages found in the eight trucks would result at least R$ 16 million, considering that each one of the 4.1 million packs costs about R$4,00. The police also found about R$ 33.000 in cash with the arrested drivers. Last Thursday (7th), the director of DOF, colonel Kleber Haddad Lane, said that the money would be used for bribery during the journey to the destination. This suspicion came right after the load seizure.
The Federal Court imposed a bail of R$ 1.4 million for the three drivers of the Cigar Mafia. The other fiver drivers left their vehicles and escaped.
Prisons: Since the first day of December, seven police officers have been arrested suspected of involvement in the smuggling scheme.
Earlier this month, Gaeco (Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime) received a report that Sergeant Alex Duarte de Aguiar and Corporal Rafael Marques da Costa had asked for R$ 150.000 to release an irregular truck and were arrested. The flagrante was in Jardim Tarumã, Campo Grande. The arrests were for passive corruption.
On Thursday, five more police officers called the attention of the police internal control for asking illegal payments to cigarette smugglers.
