Yesterday morning there was a meeting between Arnaldo Giuzzio, Minister of the Interior, representatives of the Federal Police and members of the Brazilian intelligence. Emilio Fuster, Executive Coordinating Minister of the Interinstitutional Unit for the Prevention and Prosecution of Smuggling, also participated in the meeting.
The central point of the meeting was to establish commands in the border area and carry out joint operations to combat transnational organized crime. These special forces will be located in the districts of Ponta Porá (Brazil), Pedro Juan Caballero, Guairá and Saltos del Guairá.
FUSTER
Emilio Fuster, for his part, affirmed that in 2018 he asked the Prosecutor’s Office to raid the tobacco companies whose products were seized by his unit. However, these raids were never carried out. “The National Navy is notified so that it informs the Public Ministry to request the identity of the natural and legal person, in whose name the seized and individualized vessels in this case are registered,” reads part of the document presented three years ago years ago.
In another part of the writing it is read; “The search of the tobacco companies, whose trademarks were seized in the procedure, is requested, in order to verify and seize the documentation that proves the commercialization of the merchandise to third parties residing in the city of Salto del Guairá, such as cash or credit invoices , receipts of payments, receipts of deposits and obligatory books of Commerce. Likewise, it is requested that the raid be accompanied by officials from the UIC of the SET and the Internal Trade Directorate.
According to Fuster, the raids could clarify the route of the money generated by cigarette trafficking. According to the high Secretary of the Executive, at the time, tax agents argued that they could obtain the documentation without the need to carry out the raids.
«We have carried out, after the operation deployed in Saltos del Guairá in 2018, a formal request for the search of the tobacco companies. It is important to know the route of money to know who buys the merchandise, if the distributors actually buy the product or if they are only a front. As well as to find those who launder the profits in the country », he expressed during an interview with Telefuturo.
GIUZZIO
Regarding the meeting with the Brazilian authorities, Arnaldo Giuzzio, Minister of the Interior, stated for his part that the installation of the bipartite command is necessary. Since, based on this, they are going to share databases that allow them to improve their intelligence work. He announced that in the first part of the work, these commands will be installed in Pedro Juan Caballero and Ponta Porá (Brazil), and then advance to the other districts.
“We all need alliances. The secret to generating progress against organized crime is alliances. Brazil is an ally of the United States, Colombia and we are in the same position”, he reported.
In response to questions from communicators about what his actions were when he was an anti-drug prosecutor to combat organized crime and his links with politics, he stated that he made the complaints some time ago, but regretted that they did not make further progress in the Prosecutor’s Office.
“We publicly exposed that link that relates drug trafficking to politics. That went to the Public Ministry and we don’t know what happened. So far we have no results. I also don’t know what happened regarding the complaints against tobacco companies”, he said.
