According to the report, Paraguay has an adequate legal and institutional framework to support criminal proceedings to seize and confiscate assets and proceeds of crime. In this sense, the evaluation team was able to verify that the confiscation of the proceeds of crime, instruments and assets of equivalent value is pursued as a State objective, and that this can be seen in the results of confiscations in specific cases and the administration of assets. seized with a view to confiscation by SENABICO.
According to the data provided by Paraguay, USD 12,597,621 have been effectively seized in the evaluated period, according to Gafilat.
At another point, it indicates that most of the cases of confiscation are related to drug trafficking, and that for this reason the evaluating technicians estimate that the authorities could increase the effectiveness in the confiscation of the proceeds of the crime of money laundering.
The evaluators also noted that the Paraguayan Attorney General’s Office requests, when necessary, real precautionary measures in order to secure the assets subject to criminal proceedings, as occurred in the case of Darío Messer.
Thus, they also presented success cases on money laundering related to drug trafficking that demonstrate the different stages of confiscation in the country and the impact of the measures imposed: Luiz Carlos Da Rocha, Jarvis Chimenes Pavao and Julio Cesar Duarte Servián.
BRANCA HEAD CASE
The arrest of Luiz Carlos Da Rocha in Brazil, for acts related to drug trafficking, on July 1, 2017, led to the opening of an investigation in the Republic of Paraguay. From that moment on, the MP requested the collaboration of SENAD and the Brazilian Federal Police, who provided constant collaboration in various stages.
In the first, they provided spontaneous information on the procedures in Brazil, which was essential for the identification of the names of Luiz Carlos Da Rocha and the identification of more than 100 properties in the Republic of Paraguay, mostly cattle ranches, several companies facade and a considerable number of vehicles.
In the second phase, requests for International Cooperation were made official through the legal instrument provided by the Vienna Convention, and even the Federal Police, taking into account the scope of the investigation, sent its own officials to collaborate in the classification of the seized documents, with whom the information was shared to collaborate in the process followed in the Federative Republic of Brazil.
In Paraguay, this work led to the indictment of 26 people, currently 12 of them awaiting a preliminary hearing, and the rest with international arrest warrants. – Due to the fact that the investigation is in view of the preliminary hearing, there are still no seized assets, however, there are seized assets (8 ranches, 1,401 head of cattle) and assets subject to confiscation (84 properties and 57 vehicles) .
The economic value of the cattle ranches (28,405 hectares) delivered to SENABICO amounts to USD 56,731,623.52 (US dollars fifty-six million, seven hundred and thirty-one thousand, six hundred and twenty-three and fifty-two cents).
JARVIS CHIMENES PAVÃO
Starting in 2004, Jarvis Chimenes Pavao, leader of a criminal organization dedicated to drug trafficking and related punishable acts, carried out activities aimed at disguising the origin of the money and assets obtained with such criminal offenses. In this context, he acquired, under the formal ownership of his business partner Fernando Jorge Bitencourt Da Silva, the ranch “4 Filhos”.
Precisely, with Fernando Jorge Bitencourt Da Silva, Chimenes Pavao established the firm “JF PAVAO SRL IMPORT EXPORT” with the allocation for himself of 70% of the integrated capital of the company, with bank deposits in the account of the aforementioned company, declared income and capital contributions, from which relationship result Gs. 2,279,077,130 that do not have supporting documents of origin and respond to profits illegally obtained from drug marketing and trafficking.
An important part of the aforementioned criminal structure was Carlos Antonio Caballero, along with whom on December 27, 2009, Jarvis Chimenes Pavao was in the “4 Filhos” ranch, the central geographic base of the drug association and cocaine possession site. In the place, where the convicted Hugo Orlando Escobar Ayala, Rafael Carlos Masqueda and Alexander Carvalho were also fulfilling their roles, the defendants had a large quantity of heavy-caliber weapons and ammunition ready to be used, as a means of of resistance to state intervention aimed at dismantling the active criminal platform of which Jarvis Chimenes Pavao and Carlos Antonio Caballero were part.
PROCEDURAL STATUS: BY SD No. 122 of May 2, 2014, Jarvis Chimenes Pavao was sentenced to 8 (eight) years of imprisonment. Carlos Antonio Caballero, alias “Capilo” was sentenced to 7 (seven) years of imprisonment. The special confiscation of Farm No. 3728, Padrón 6063 in the district of Pedro Juan Caballero was ordered; Farm No. 4988, Register 3746 of the district of Concepción; Farm No. 3005, Register 3694 of the District of Horqueta, in addition to cash, jewelry, firearms, vehicles, among others.
By criminal confiscation, assets consisting of real estate valued at approximately GS were seized and confiscated. 11,190,000,000 (guaraníes eleven thousand one hundred and ninety million) equivalent to USD 1,622,000.00 (US dollars one thousand six hundred and twenty-two), rolled-over valued at USD 10,200.00 (US dollars ten thousand and two hundred) and cash for a total value equivalent to USD 20,587.59 The special confiscation of said assets was ordered to be used as reparation in accordance with the applicable legal framework. It is not omitted to specify that this case was the product of an intelligence report from SENAD and the Special Forces also participated. Likewise, there was cooperation between the Republic of Paraguay and the Federative Republic of Brazil – Letter of Order/Brazil.
CASE OF JULIO CESAR DUARTE SERVIAN ET AL. (STATUS)
Case 8535/2019 in the framework of the investigation against Julio César Duarte Servián, Robson Lourival Alcaraz Ajala, Isaura Sánchez Freitas and Noelia Giménez for the crimes of ML arising from the International Trafficking of Dangerous Drugs, Criminal Association and the provisions of article 44 of Law No. 1340/88 regarding intervening in some way or obtaining an economic benefit, in relation to a criminal scheme stationed in the border cities between Pedro Juan Caballero and Ponta Pora, the leaders being the GARCÍA MORÍNIGO CLAN.
The members of the CLAN GARCÍA MORÍNIGO were arrested and placed at the disposal of the Brazilian authorities, in response to the arrest warrant that weighed on them, issued by the authorities of the Federative Republic of Brazil. Precautionary measures of a real nature were applied, consisting of the general prohibition of selling and encumbering assets, as well as the request for sequestration and deposit in a special account of sums of money seized and also of the sums of money deposited in banks or financial entities or in power of third parties, which became administered by SENABICO, likewise, the request for precautionary measures prohibiting the legal status of 17 properties located in different parts of the country.
It should be added that the assets mentioned above are subject to precautionary measures and confiscation will be requested at the appropriate time. The application of the special confiscation was requested and as of September 2021, 12 properties were seized; 62 vehicles; cash worth USD. 92,500.00 (American dollars ninety-two thousand five hundred) and the following were seized: 17 properties on which the precautionary measure of prohibition of innovating the legal status weighs, the special confiscation of them having been requested in the accusation as already mentioned. This case resulted from inter-institutional cooperation between SENAD and the Federal Police of Brazil, and the MP and SENABICO also intervened.
