The General Directorate of Customs (DGA) deepened controls on barges from Paraguay in response to alerts about the risk of drug trafficking, according to official sources.
The DGA press release, released today (04.09.2023/XNUMX/XNUMX), indicates that "the agency increased inspections on convoys crossing the Paraná River, carrying out documentary verifications in the terms established by the Customs Code and Law No. 24.385 (River Transport Agreement on the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway) and controlling both the security of the seals as access to the respective loads."
The procedures were carried out by teams of specialized agents from the General Directorate of Customs together with anti-narcotics dogs.
The waterway is the most important waterway in Mercosur and as such, it is a chosen route for drug smuggling to Europe - taking advantage of the complexity of carrying out controls on barges loaded with grain or iron ore, and the ease of conditioning drug loads during the more than 3.400 km of navigation.
El Agreement on River Transport through the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway It establishes that, during the course of the Hydroway, customs must refrain from carrying out inspections or controls on transport units - except when they enter the port to carry out operations -, limiting themselves to the review of the documentation and external conditions of the cargo, such as sealing.
It should be noted that, in the event of suspected fraud, this in no way limits the right of customs to carry out the controls they deem appropriate.
It should be noted that the controls implemented by the DGA were carried out taking advantage of the characteristics of navigation logistics. In this sense, the barge convoys moor on islands off the coast of Corrientes province and segment the number of barges into smaller quantities, thus allowing customs personnel to carry out their control actions without delaying the commercial flow.
Furthermore, the Customs is evaluating, to facilitate free navigation, the implementation of the Electronic Seal for Customs Monitoring (PEMA), a tool that enables agile and efficient satellite control.
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