The head of the National Anticorruption Secretariat, René Fernández, revealed that the entity continues to investigate the passage of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane through Paraguay and assured that the investigations indicate that the purchase of Tabesa cigarettes was only a “facade” used by the crew. to meet with Paraguayans linked to human trafficking and drug trafficking networks.
The anti-corruption minister, René Fernández, testified yesterday before the Bicameral Investigation Commission on money laundering and at the end commented to the media that the crew members of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane used the Tabesa cigarette purchase operation, a company owned by Horacio Cartes. , as a front to meet with agents of organized crime linked to human trafficking and drug trafficking.
“We have indications that they had meetings or at least the opportunity to meet with people linked in our country to international human trafficking and drug trafficking. This is an investigation that is still ongoing, it is data that we are still seeking to collect, but we already have that preliminary information that has also been communicated to the Public Ministry, “he stressed.
In this sense, Fernández emphasized that they seek to clarify the circumstances of the Boeing 747 flight, with a Venezuelan flag and Iranian registration YV3531, which arrived in Paraguay on May 13 and stayed for three days to supposedly carry out commercial activities.
“There are several elements that were striking to us. One of them is that the crew and the plane would be linked to people and companies designated as belonging to or cooperating with terrorism, mainly on the list of the United States Office of Foreign Capital Control, which generated an alert and the deepening of these issues,” he recalled.
Fernández added that the Iranian crew would have met in Ciudad del Este with two foreigners and a Paraguayan with a history of international human trafficking and drug trafficking.
“They are people who have a record and have ongoing criminal proceedings in our country for these punishable acts,” he stressed.
Although he did not specify the number of meetings or the places where these meetings took place, the head of the Anti-Corruption Secretariat assured that “all the Venezuelan-Irnai crew had contact with these people” and that “the investigation of the case is still ongoing” .
“What we can say is that they were in contact and had the opportunity to talk,” he said.
Fernández added that “he does not know if it is in hotels or restaurants, but they did meet. What we have identified are three people. We are always talking about organized crime. We believe that at least one of the meeting places will have been the hotel.”
During his appearance before the Bicameral Investigation Commission on money laundering, the head of the Anticorruption Secretariat said that “elements are still being collected regarding the actions of the National Customs Directorate and the Civil Aeronautics Directorate during the passage of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane .
The cargo ship continues to be held at the Ezeiza airport (Argentina), where the authorities are investigating the crew for their links with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran, a terrorist organization, according to information from the United States.
