The Venezuelan-Iranian plane, which continues to be held in Argentina, continues to reveal irregularities. Now, apparently the Cartes Group would have used it to transport cigarettes between their companies.
The Venezuelan-Iranian Boeing 747 plane, with registration YV3531, continues to be held in Argentina, after landing last Saturday in Ezeiza. The aircraft belongs to Emtrasur, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan Consortium of Aeronautical Industries and Air Services (Conviasa) and is sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Sanctions.
In addition to links to money laundering, one of the crew members, Gholamreza Ghasemi, would be part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran, which, according to the United States, constitutes a terrorist group. Both factors motivated the Argentine authorities to initiate an investigation against the crew.
This same plane arrived in our country, specifically at the Guaraní airport (Minga Guazú), on May 13 to stow a load of Tabesa SA cigarettes and transport it to Aruba. Said cargo is valued at US$ 755,000
In invoice 001-002-0000640, which certifies the operation and was issued by the company Tabacalera del Este SA (Tabesa), 6,010 packs of “Ibiza extra mild double short filter” products and 1,076 packs of the “Ibiza extra soft” line were transferred. soft King Size”.
The client declared in the document, released by the international media Infobae, is the company Tabacos USA Inc, but the receiving firm was Tabacal Free Zone Nv, whose headquarters are located in Aruba.
The operations of the mysterious plane are in the sights of international investigators.
A SCHEME SUSPICIOUS
The economist and political analyst Víctor Raúl Benítez recalled that the company that bought the shipment of cigarettes (Tabacos USA Inc) is also owned by Grupo Cartes, as is Tabesa, the selling company. In fact, according to documents released by the Washington Post, Sarah Cartes would be president of the firm, while her brother Horacio Cartes would be second in command.
“Mr. José Ortiz said that it is not Tabesa’s responsibility to have contracted that suspicious freighter. However, one of the companies that bought the cargo in the United States (Tabacos USA Inc) is also from Grupo Cartes”, he emphasized.
In this sense, the political analyst emphasized that the company receiving the shipment of cigarettes located in Aruba, (Tabacal Free Zone Nv), would be linked to the Mansur family, which is suspected of smuggling cigarettes between Aruba and Colombia. This same information was also spread by the Washington Post.
“There is no convincing evidence that Mr. Cartes is an accomplice to an act of terrorism. What is suspicious is that they used a plane that was carrying merchandise to the same business group and that in the midst of these operations between two companies apparently from the same shareholders, freighters are used who are suspected of money laundering and being terrorists, “he said. .
DISMISSALS IN THE DINAC
The Minister of the Interior, Federico González, commented in an interview for 730 AM that the administrator of the Guaraní airport, Luis Afara, and another Dinac official were removed from their positions after the controversial arrival of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane in Ciudad del Este.
In turn, González announced that internal measures will also be taken in Senad. “There have been situations that could be handled better,” he referred to the reason for these provisions.
The foreign minister indicated that the aircraft obtained permission from Dinac for commercial purposes. In that sense, he confirmed that, after verifications, this Iranian plane only lifted in our country cigarettes from the tobacco company that is owned by former President Horacio Cartes.
