The second shift Organized Crime judge, María Helena Mainard, charged a German and a Swiss citizen with the crime of international trafficking in arms, ammunition and explosives, as well as smugglingsources from the Prosecutor’s Office reported.
This Wednesday The National Customs Directorate (DNA) seized a container from the Port of Montevideo that contained military weapons with ammunition and gunpowderand inputs such as several liters of alcohol and cigarettes.
Then, a raid was carried out on a property in Punta del Este where the same content was found, they said from the public ministry.
The Justice ordered a preventive detention of 100 days. The prosecutor Flagrancia Pablo Rivas requested this precautionary measure due to the risk of escape. The defendants had several entrances and exits from the country, and the financial means to elope if they wanted to.
The Prosecutor’s Office will continue to investigate to determine precisely the origin of the seized shipment in the Port of Montevideo and its purpose.
National Customs Directorate
Alcohol and cigarettes also found in the container
As indicated by the DNA in a statement, the shipment is owned by a german citizen that he had two containers in the port to carry out a “moving”.
The agency reported that the two deposits passed through one of the customs scanners this Wednesday. In this review, “anomalies” were found that the authorities understood required “a comprehensive review”.
One of the containers of the German citizen had “the usual items of personal effects” for a movebut in the other, they detailed from the DNA, “The load was found to be disorganized and in different packages.”
Entering that container “a box of large-bore shotgun shells for military use” was seenwhich led Customs to contact the Prefecture and the General Directorate of Information and Police Intelligence of the Ministry of the Interior.
In the container were found “large quantities of live ammunition, including military calibers and hollow points, telescopic sights, cartridge belts, and articles of military clothing”pointed out the DNA.
On the other hand, from that deposit they also seized “a significant amount of alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, cigars and medicines.”
