The General Directorate of Customs and AFIP detected and prevented the entry into the 14 containers with 274 tons of non-regular merchandise inside, which included, among other products, machines for mining cryptocurrencies, prods, pepper spray, toys, socks and cosmetics.
Thus, from the crossing of information, risk profiles, analysis of variables and data mining, it was possible to seize the containers of contraband cargo and the trademark fraud that they implied, with an estimated market value of the various merchandise of about 5, 6 million dollars, about 850 million pesos, as officially reported.
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa; the director of the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP), Carlos Castagneto; and the head of the General Directorate of Customs, Guillermo Michel.
“The central objective is to protect the national industry. We see a lot of imports and contraband items hidden in other items,” Massa assured in statements to the press,
And he stated: “We need to take care of the Argentine dollars, protect the reserves; give confidence, strength and credibility to our currency and that our industry does not have to compete with unfairly imported merchandise, with contraband”.
The products
Inside the containers opened by fiscal order there was a wide range of products in violation: machines for mining cryptocurrencies, prods, pepper spray, toys and cosmetics, among others.
Specifically, they were kidnapped 342 cryptocurrency mining machines, 290 electric prods, 4,800 pepper spray containers, 428,548 makeup products, 456,510 cosmetic products, 20,880 clinical thermometers, 21,600 prescription glasses and 120,840 sunglasses.
Also seized were 79,176 toys, 3,000 telephone cases, 34,500 cockroachicide containers, 5,200 joysticks for video games, 34,901 articles of clothing and 374,200 cables for cell phone chargers and headphones;
“These actions make me proud because they protect the national industry and put a stop to unfair competition. Customs will continue to put a stop to everything that threatens the transparency of international trade,” said Michel, who congratulated the agents involved and highlighted the impact of the operative.
For his part, Castagneto stated: “For us there are no Saturdays or Sundays: we want an AFIP that works everywhere, with the joint effort of its three general directorates and the Ministry of Economy. The time for the living is over.”
Participating in the operation were Luciano Galfione, president of the Pro Tejer Foundation; Emmanuel Poletto and Julián Benitez, president and manager, respectively, of the Argentine Chamber of the Toy Industry; Norberto Fermani, president of Cadioca (Argentine Chamber of Optical Industries); Enrique Caride, Gustavo Giay and Nicolás Sarapura, president, member and vice president, respectively, of the Association for the fight against piracy; Marcelo Fernandez, president of Cgera; and Daniel Rosato, president of Industriales Pymes Argentinos (IPA).
